Saturday, September 11, 2010

Blogging Towards Sunday, September 12


The texts suggested by the Lectionary (a 3 year cycle through which we travel the breadth of the Bible) address the question of discipleship and grace.  We're challenged to love and live as Jesus did.  A radical invitation that seems poignantly a propos in this week of threatened Koran burning by a Florida church as we mark the 9th anniversary of the horrific destruction of September 11th and its consequences.

In the gospel according to Luke, again we see that Jesus is encountered around a meal, a celebration: with the wrong people.  Tax collectors, sinners, maybe prostitutes and gamblers: folks who were considered immoral or wrong because of their economic activities.  At the same time they were the ones with money, enough to host large meals, something that was rare and very costly in the poverty that dominated Palestine in Jesus’ day.  It’s in this setting that the parables of Luke 15 unfold: verses 3-7: the Parable of the Lost Sheep; verses 8-10 the Parable of the Lost Coin; and verses 11-31 the Parable of the Prodigal Son, also called the Parable of the Loving Father.  All follow a similar narrative structure:  something is lost.  It’s sought out.  It’s found.  A celebration occurs to mark that was was lost is found.

Friday, September 10, 2010

Friday, September 03, 2010

Friday, August 27, 2010

Bumper sticker of the week



I love bumper stickers:  the opportunity to be funny, ironic or poignantly observant in a phrase or word.  I find that there are a ton of great ones in the East Bay, in particular in certain parking lots such as the Big Longs and Trader Joe's by the Lake.  I'm always looking for good ones to share - one a week - and open to getting ones you've seen by email.   I've noticed that there are a lot less stickers these days: either a sign of the economic downturn, or maybe our political/social malaise.

Thanks go to Nani for this week's.

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Blogging Towards Sunday, August 29th

Jesus is invited to a meal at the home of a prominent religious leader.  It’s like he’s been invited to be watched in some sort of paparazzi religious-examination way.  And yet ironically as the story unfolds we see that it’s actually Jesus who is doing the watching.  Like many of the gospel episodes, this one unfolds around food and the sharing of a meal: the basic experience that flavors and empowers human relationships and community.


Choosing public school      
or at least hoping to

School starts in Oakland, at least for OUSD, next Monday.  A time of excitement and anxiety, eagerness and trepidation.  In our own family our youngest will start kindergarten and has been instensly preparing though play for the big day.  Yet public school, or the challenge of choosing it in the urban jungle of the Bay Area, and Oakland in particular, is one of the things that drives Oaklandites away.  In our own travails of trying to get into a public school, other than the just-above-failing one around the corner from our home in East Oakland, led us to question staying in Oakland, our commitment to the city, public education and our children.  The problems facing urban schools are not black and white.  They can't merely be solved by throwing more money at them.  It won't change overnight.  And yet the cost of change isn't just money and time, but one's children.  The tension of being committed to your children and your city/public schools is one that goes all too often under the radar.  What happens to the middle-class, lower creative-class families in our urban areas that are too monied for help, but too poor for private school, unlucky for a charter school spot or stuck for a move to the burbs?

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Blogging Towards Sunday, August 22, 2010




I was driving through the MacArthur Maze on a pilgrimage to IKEA this week and found myself stuck in traffic behind a truck with a bumper sticker reading "The problem with religion is religion."  It got me thinking, in particular about the lectionary texts for this coming Sunday (my first at a new church gig).  HYPOCRISY seems to be the big thing that people comment about in terms of problems with religion, and in particular - in our context - with Christians.  Against abortion but for the death penalty.  For the peace of Christ and the war in Iraq.  For religious freedom, but not a mosque near the former World Trade Center site.  For morality, as long as it doesn't impede one's own personal choices and options.  Where do we find the balance between faith and follow-through; between our egos and our authenticity?  The texts from Jeremiah and Luke invite us to this dialogue.

Back into the blog and a new work gig

This week I started a new job, serving as pastor with the faith community of College Avenue Presbyterian Church in the Rockridge District of Oakland.  A congregation faithfully serving the city of Oakland for over 100 years, which began in the countryside and now is in the mix of the urban context of Oakland, and is seeking to articulate and facilitate the living out of faith in what is emerging as our 21st century context and culture.

I'm reconnecting with my Monteskewed blog which had been dormant for a while as I lived in France and blogged primarily in French at ckoilafoi.wordpress.com.  I'm planning to reestablish the blog, doing what I did before - some writing on the practice of Christian faith and urban life, crazy city images, rantings and ravings and the expression of my sarcastic humor; as well as some soon to emerge new things, in particular aspects of life in and around Oakland.  If you have ideas or suggestions please be sure to share them with me through a comment.

Saturday, July 31, 2010

Blogging Towards Sunday, August 1, 2010

In the wake of 9/11, the the burst of the mortgage bubble meltdown, Bernie Maddock ponzi schemes, and decreasing church membership roles, questions of security dominate our national, cultural  and church psyches.  How can we be safe from future terrorist attacks?  How can we be financially secure when everything seems to anything but?  Can life be sure and secure?  And how does faith through Christ fit into our wonderings.  Trust in God, is the answer.  Yet while it's easy to recite, it's often much harder to live day to day.

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Blogging Towards Sunday, July 18, 2010

We read the scriptures as a community each week as a practice that shapes us and sends us; a big story that frames our way of seeing, being and believing.  What does it mean to be a follower of Jesus?  What does that look like?  This week's gospel lesson, as always, offers direction.  Clear, concise, to the point, but also a bit vague, we often tend to oversimplify it in our reading.  Mary is the good one.  Martha is wrong.  She should have listened to the words of Jesus instead of working so hard.  A black and white answer for life that is more grey than two-tone.



Martha is doing what is required, preparing and offering hospitality, fitting of her guest - paramount in the cultural context both then and still today, of the Middle East.  Doesn't Jesus criticize the Pharisee who hosts him yet doesn't wash his feet, leaving the task to the tears of the mysterious woman [Luke 7]?  Doesn't Jesus himself use this task of hospitality (washing the feet of a guest) as a pedagogical experience to show the disciples what it means to serve one another [John 13]?  While we do need to first receive the gospel, it is most often by our actions, presence, relationships - and hospitality - that we reflect what we have received.  So it can't simply be an existential choice of being like Mary or being like Martha.


Friday, June 25, 2010

Blogging Towards Sunday, June 27
Luke 9:51-62 [The Message]

"Discipleship places heavy demands on followers of Jesus.  The way Jesus takes involves and unprotected mission, a clear choice about priorities, and a clean break with the past."  [quote from my studies this week].  Luke 9 is the beginning of the end: Jesus heading towards Jerusalem, knowing that his way of love, life and liberation will most likely lead towards a cross than a coronation celebration.  In a sense it's the beginning (in the next chapters) of what we might call "Jesus' Following Instructions for Dummies and Disciples."


Monday, June 07, 2010

Oakland is gone.


A funny photo I received a while back, portraying the Imperial Power of Star Wars, having vanquished Oakland moving across the bay to attack San Francisco.  I guess that it could be one way to deal with budget cuts that no one wants to tackle.

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Pentecost : the next church revolution

Emergent.  Transformation.  Post-modern.  Changing.  Gen X. 21st Century Church.  Hot catch phrases, often thrown around with the intent of sparking interest and justifying ones church credentials (or lack thereof).  Yet maybe these current buzz words about the shifting relationship between church and culture merely serve to say a lot without really saying anything at all?


The text for Sunday, according to the Lectionary, is the story of Pentecost [Acts 2:1-13].  The birth-story of the church community.  From the beginning multi-cultural, trans-national, inter-generational, and gender-inclusive; this community of faith was not just about preaching to the masses, but also listening to what is going on.


Monday, March 29, 2010

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Bumper Sticker of the Week


I might be time to moveon to another bumper sticker.  
I think that this ship has sailed.

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Oakland Marathon (virtual)


The Oakland Marathon [site] is coming soon - March 27th! - a chance for Oakland to be in the spotlight - and for many folks to see more than just the crime and gun-driven side of the city.  Here's a cool e-recreation of the marathon route. [East Bay Express Article]

Tuesday, March 09, 2010

Bumper Sticker of the Week


The past few weeks I saw a lot of similar bumperstickers.  Not sure if it's wishful thinking in a difficult time, a deepening political polarization, or selective memory of past budget deficits.

Thursday, March 04, 2010

Saturday, February 27, 2010

Blogging Towards Sunday, February 28, 2010
The two texts proposed by the lectionary list for this day talk about theophany (the theological-ese word for "the auto or self-revelation of God."  They relate the identification of Jesus in a miraculously theological way as the Messiah, the Son of God; and also God concluding the covenant with Abraham.  The disciples don't get what's happening, even when they realize that the heavens are open, that the divine voice identifies Jesus as the One, their response reveals that they don't really grasp what that means for them in the moment or for the world in general.  They want to build a house to stay there, maybe some sort of tabernacle so that this moment can be preserved forever.  Yet Jesus is calling them - and is called himself - into the world, to action, to radical loving that transforms all through nonviolent acts of grace, compassion and justice - to practice resurrection in daily life.


Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Bumper Sticker of the Week



OK.  This isn't a sticker (I've run out of e-files of them) yet it's a hilarious image from a friend's facebook page.  It recalls a very funny moment on the Ellen show last year.  One that still makes me chuckle when I think of it.  I actually had a handful of thoughtful conversations about faith and life because of the show .  I think we tend to overlook the ways in which pop culture - even bumperstickers - can invite to discussion not simply proclaim one's values or moral sense.

Monday, February 15, 2010

Love: Cupid or Stupid?

Living cross-culturally always provides for insight, discovery and cultural challenge.  Culture is so much an innate part of the basic fabric of our lives that we don't always see it, nor can we be aware of it.  Valentine's Day is a big thing in America.  True - like in Europe - it's a money-maker for restaurants, florists and other commercial activities.  Yet the now-traditional and historically-exaggerated celebration of the Martyr Valentine isn't just about lovers, over-priced roses or reserving a table months in advance.  It's about love, saying it, expressing it, celebrating it.  This year our children have been decorating for weeks, making cards, boxes to receive Valentine's all the familiar kid things that happen in America and yet are so foreign here in France.  So we had a giant celebration with yesterday at home with about 8 cupcakes for each person.  Here in France, it's purely commercial, for lovers, seen as something that cheapen,s, consumerises and cheapifys love.  Yet maybe the international, and multi-cultural visions of Valentine's Day are actually revelatory of the ways in which love has been commodified, capitalized and codified in our cultures.


Friday, February 12, 2010

Advertising & Faith

I read an interesting article in SF Gate this morning detailing a current ad campaign "good without God?" (now playing in and around Sacramento after previous stops elsewhere) that is "plugging" atheism.  The article is interesting.  The best part for me was to read the comments and see the inter-faith bickering, name-calling and fighting. It made me wonder: can you actually advertise faith, or non-faith?  Does it even matter, or reach anyone?  Or is it merely preaching to the choir and rallying the troops around the flag-pole?

Here's some of the billboards in and around Sactown.


Thursday, February 11, 2010

Blogging Towards Sunday February 14, 2010

What is life about?  How do you live a good life?  What is a good life?  Jesus offers a vision of a nonviolent world of peace, fullness and God-centered-ness in his beatitude teaching, as Luke tells it.  Paul talks about resurrection and how it informs and forms faith.  It's hard to know what "blessed" means in a world in which blessings are associated with brief pre-dinner prayers, year-end compensation, or miraculous salvation from sickness and disaster.  Can you be blessed in everyday life?

Saturday, February 06, 2010

Blogging Towards Sunday February 7th

Stories about our vocation to the mission we have as the people of God is what dominates the texts for Sunday.  Isaiah is called to serve as prophet, not to tell the future, but to speak God's word for the present, to give a different perspective to those around him.  His response is one of availability "here I am" to be used for God and to part from his past into and towards a new or emerging future "send me."

Luke tells his version of the miraculous fish-catch encounter as one of vocation of the first disciples.  Jesus comes to them, in their terms and on their turf to invite them to step out, to set their boats towards deeper waters, beyond the safety of the shoreline, to cast their nets in unfamiliar ways.  They're called to reprioritize their life, leaving behind the abundant catch of fish for the risk and potential of the unknown future of following after Jesus.  They're encouraged to try again, to despite their potential disgust, despair or disappointment with their lack of catching anything until then, to try again.


Tuesday, February 02, 2010

Bumper Sticker of the Week


This is my last one for a while.  (Thanks Nani!) I've run out.
If you see any good ones, email me a photo!
Blogging Backwards towards January 31


The passages proposed for Sunday play with the themes of hearing, seeing and recognizing the presence of God and the living Word of God in our lives both individual and together as the community of faith.

I found this funny image while surfing the internet that illustrates the paradox of the texts:




Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Bumper Sticker of the Week

I see this one a lot.



Monday, January 18, 2010

Blogging Towards Sunday January 24, 2010



What does God want to for the world?  How is/does God accomplish it?  What does that have to do with us?  In the wake of the earthquake in Haiti we ask ourselves the questions that resound through the limitations of our humanity: who are we?  is there a God? what's the connection?


Friday, January 15, 2010

Is Food the Future?:
Alice Waters and the scope of education


SF Gate recently ran an article about Alice Waters [The Scavenger blog], and specifically an Atlantic Magazine article [Cultivating Failure] criticizing her foray of the slow food movement into politics, specifically elementary education in America.  Is prioritizing the teaching of sustainable gardening and cooking to kids in school taking the place of the teaching of mathematics, English, science or other arts?  In a time of slash and burn education budgets is she wasting limited resources in view of teaching children an upper-class Bay Area-ite foodie culture practiced by the prius-driving latte-drinking über crust of our society?  Or is she as she would claim a sort of centurion for truth and justice fighting against the titan-like governator in Sacramento?


Thursday, January 14, 2010

Marriage Equality: talking from beyond our polarization.

The definition of marriage in terms of legal rights, institutional definition, and constitutional ramifications continue to be a large topic in our ongoing dialogue about religion, church practice and what it means to be American in 2010.  This weeks' edition of Newsweek contains an article that is quickly making the rounds on Facebook and becoming a topic of great conversation.  "The Conservative Case for Gay Marriage" [includes a video] by Theodore B. Olson.  What makes the article so interesting is the fact that the author writes from a perspective that would seemingly be associated with an opposite viewpoint: a Republican actively working for Marriage Equality.


Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Monday, January 11, 2010

Blogging Towards Sunday, January 17th

Water into wine: is that a big deal?  It almost doesn't seem to be when you read the gospel text for this coming Sunday.  No one draws attention to the sign or miracle - that Jesus performs at the wedding he is attending with his friends and family in Cana.  It's only when the wine is tasted that the miracle is revealed. It seems like there are two conclusions to the story: the first in verse 10 - a remark that the best wine was surprisingly served last (post-Jesus-intervention) and then a second one in verse 11 - by the narrator telling the story, informing us that the real miracle was that the disciples put their faith in Jesus and believed.  So what is the miracle: the water into wine, or the 5 disciples present moving from followers to believers?


Saturday, January 09, 2010

Are GLEEks racists?



I read this fantastically surprising article about racism in Glee on colorlines.com:  [Is Glee off Key on Race?] talking about how liberals often get it so wrong, possessing and re-iterating the same basic racist perspectives underneath what they claim to be race-neutral.  While I'm a fan of the show, and laugh hardest with Sue does her uncomfortably inappropriate hyper-racist ranting, you do have to wonder if and how the show does belittle the minority characters and their travails - how it all might contribute to furthering the very stereotypes that it's - supposedly - seeking to deconstruct.  Or maybe it's all just about good fun and the either naive or bleeding-heart-optimistic hope that we all can "make it."  What's tragic, in terms of our society, when you stop and really think is that many of the charaters won't "make it" - yet the quarterback and pregnant chastity-queen cheerleader most likely will.  Granted - reality television - is anything but what the names implies.  Who wants to watch the reality we live on tv for entertainment.  Yet at what point does entertainment we take in to escape life, become a force that shapes the life we live the next day?

Friday, January 08, 2010

Tolerance and faith sharing in a pluralist society: 
is it possible?
Brit Hume - Tiger Woods - Jesus and the Bouhdda

I awoke today wot some interesting news about Brit Hume, an ex-FOX news anchor sharing publicly some religious advice to Tiger Woods, encouraging to embrace Christianity and to let go of his bouhddist background.  Here's a news clip of the moment:



Can you say such things?  Can you say them publicly?  Is Hume being intolerant, belittling one faith to proselytize with his own?  To what point can we go in terms of talking about faith and positively encouraging it?  What is the line between sharing your faith and hope in a personal context and proselytizing in a superioristic way?  Is it merely the religious (fundamentally the Christian one) perspective that is intolerant? and/or can you argue that a secularist perspective can become fundamentalist, extremist and intolerant as well?  Where do you, where can you draw the lines in a pluralist society that seeks not to control but to value its diversity and the parts that make up the whole?
[Washington Post article by Michael Gerson].


Thursday, January 07, 2010

Blogging Towards Sunday January 10, 2009

Who are we and how do we define ourselves?  In a sense that's the question that I hear this passage about the baptism of Jesus and the conclusion of John the Baptizer's ministry ask.  In a world in which we're most often defined by our job, our wealth (or lack of), our passport, or our education.  In a world in which our identity can be stolen from our mailbox or our credit card, Christianity offers a different path.  We are because we're in relationship.


Bumper Sticker of the Week

OK, this isn't a bumper sticker.  But is just too funny to not use.


Sunday, January 03, 2010

Oakland in the News as a Marijuana Mecca

I caught up on some www news cruising today and ran across a video - supposedly one of the bests of original films of 2009 - on newsweek.com talking about and fearturing Oakland as a "marijuana mecca" and a, if not the, primary model that other cities are looking towards in America.  Interesting view, with lots of local celebrities, if you haven't seen it or are even just vaguely interested.  Granted it's dated October...but I'm slowly catching up on Oaktown news.


Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Friday, December 25, 2009

Christmas Prayer in a time of Nationalism and Xenophobia



I received this prayer, originally in French in the mail this week, finding it thoughtful and poignant for our world today:

Lord Jesus, you were born to a Jewish Mother.
Babylonians came to worship you.
You rejoiced in the faith of a Syrian woman
and that of a Roman centurion.
You welcomed the Greek pagans who came looking for you.
An African carried your cross.
Remind us that you came for every man, every woman.
And that it's for all of us, each one of us,
that you promised to make us capable of saying:
"Lord, I am one that follows you."


Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Monday, December 21, 2009

Preaching at Christmas, Cophenagen, Avatar 
and Post-Modern Manger Seekers

What's the connection between Christmas, Cophenagen and Avatar?  I went to see Avatar today and here's how I see it.  A close second to the highest money making December premier of a movie, it actually has much to teach the church about post-modernity and in its new-ageish eco-friendliness points to two fundamental aspects of Christian identity that the church would do well to remember and kindle.




Saturday, December 19, 2009

Advent Conspiracy

This weekend is the BIG push - the final shopping rush before Christmas.  Some folks have gathered together as the Advent Conspiracy and seek to resist the consumeristic tsunami that Christmas has become.  They make some great stuff, including this video clip that challenges our holiday practices and invites us to practice them in different ways:

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Blogging Towards Sunday, December 20th


What's so special about Mary?  In France where I live and work she can be seen as a major source of division between Catholics and Protestants.  Is she the mother of God, or the woman who gives birth to the Promised One?  Was she a virgin? a young maiden?  a liar?  Where today I think Mary is oftentimes (not by any fault of her own) an object of division, she is in fact maybe the opposite, someone to imitate and emulate.


Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Oakland Video

I ran across this cool video of Oakland, and original song, on a blog I check sometimes [www.shalomofoakland.com/blog.html]. Very Oaktown.



Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Tuesday, December 08, 2009

Bumper Sticker of the Week




Not exactly sure what this means, but it's a great conversation-starter.

Monday, December 07, 2009

How do you spell convergence in Church-ese?

This video, or a similar one, is diffused via youtube at the conclusion of each year. It's a definite eye-opener, albeit super American-centered, in terms of the speed at which aspects of our life together as a society and our deepening dependance upon technological tools are converging to impact the details of every day life. I continue to find myself asking if anyone and who in the church is paying attention.  In Advent we remember and focus upon the promise of the return of Christ, the promise that all is not lost, that there is hope for justice, redemption, wholeness and shalom-peace even in our world today.  It's what the Bible articulates as the hope we wait anxiously for, a waiting in which we're admonished to say awake, to say alert and to be on the lookout.  Maybe in the church we've forgotten that message?  Or maybe we just don't know what we're hoping for and/or waiting for in liberating expectation?

Tuesday, December 01, 2009

Monday, November 30, 2009


Blogging Towards Sunday, December 6, 2009


Malchi 4:1-4 | Luke 1:68-79 | Luke 3:1-6

Advent is a time of preparation, anticipation, staying awake - not in view of decorating our house, making a list and checking it twice or waiting up for the jolly old guy in red; as much as it is about a future-oriented hope, expectation and active waiting.  The texts this week remind us to hunger and thirst as God does: for justice, for a reign in which the oppressed and the oppressors live together in peace, in which the lion and lamb lay together, a pardoxal reversal of the world as we know it. But how does it come?

It's not a new word, it's the Word that God has spoken from prophet to prophet, from age to age.  But  how does it come?  What's up with God taking so long?  Or maybe it's just an empty promise, a metaphorical response to the presence of Evil in our world.


Thursday, November 26, 2009

Happy Thanksgiving ! | ?


In general at Thanksgiving we're ready for a good laugh, the chance to relax and be with family and friends, to eat, but most of all it's the time together that we remember: watching a game or a parade, the smells while hanging out in the kitchen, the post-dinner clean-up, the late-night snacking.




Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

The World is Just Awesome






I saw this video on a friend's Facebook page.  Yes it's a fun advertisement and also found it to be an interesting response to last week's lectionary text from Mark 13 and an invitation to reflect upon how we react and engage the world in which we live.  Definitely more my style than the choice of flight and withdrawl that might be more expressed in the 2012 film, or the emerging fear of apocalyptic destruction and judgment looking forward to auspicious date December 21, 2012 in the Mayan calendar.
Bumper Sticker of the Week




Friday, November 13, 2009

Evangelism: has it seen its day?

This American Life had a recent very interesting interview about evangelism as a scam, a basic bait-and-switch pattern that the church didn't learn from imitating Jesus, but rather shamelessly adopted from corporate America.  The interview with Jim Henderson is interesting and worth a listen [link].

He also has an interesting movement being spearheaded through his site: offthemap.com

and a great video that you can use for your own stuff on vimeo:



The Spiritual Discipline of Serving from Recycle Your Faith on Vimeo.

Thanks to Matt for the connection.

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

A Day of Memory : November 11th


I spoke this morning in the town of Vernouillet at an inter-religious ceremony commemorating November 11th, end official end of WW1.  The theme of "solidarity for peace" - quite a French theme and experience, and one that has been poignant for today.  It began with the moderator introducing me (I spoke with a Priest, Rabbi and Almost Imam [sounds like the beginning of a joke]) as the newbie and an American.  He began crying, expressing his gratitude for the Americans who came and died in Europe twice in 30 years for freedom.  Moving and unexpected.

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Monday, November 09, 2009

Can Virtual Church Be Literally Fulfilling?


CNN recently posted a breaking news video entitled "Is virtual worship fulfilling?" [LINK to the video report]. [LINK to lifechurch.tv]  Interesting video that asks a question that's been being discussed for several years in certain corners and sub-populations of the church community.

I found striking the commentators remarks towards the beginning.  It's high ceilings, windows and everyone together - those are the things that remind her of church.  In an age of transformation and redefinition of most of our experiences in daily life because of technological advancement, our approach to pluralism and cultural diversity and the global market-place, church - religious community and experience - also needs to be redefined, or does it?

Thursday, November 05, 2009

Blogging Towards Sunday, November 8th 



Familiar text that we often regulate to a stereotypical reading that glorifies the generosity of a poor widow, I suspect that we are so blinded by her extreme example that we become incapable of living into the generous way of life Jesus is calling us to.  She gives all that she has, 2 coins (lepton, worth about 1/64th of a day's wage for a typical worker).  The coins weren't worth much, or anything in the day.  Yet it's all she has.  So she gives it by faith and in faith.  Whereas the scribes make themselves known and visible by their actions and supposed generosity, she enters into the worship space and lives our her faith without seeking attention and glory.  Faithfulness in action.

It's a great story.  Yet often we've read it saying that it's a horrible excuse to deprive the poor even more, or a vain attempt to say that we, the good and faithful Christians, are like the widow and others are like the scribes.  I suspect the text is more than just a black and white comparison between the scribe and the widow as examples of faithfulness.  It's an invitation to recognize that the scribes weren't just blinded by their ambition, they were blinded to the fundamental meaning of the Torah.   It's a juxtaposition between the ambiguity of institutions and systems and the demands of faithfulness.

Tuesday, November 03, 2009

Bumper sticker of the week

Thanks to Uncle Andrew for this find.
If you see a good one email it to me.