Flawed Glass

  I had a defining moment in the shower this morning. A lot of my defining moments come when I’m in the shower, probably because that’s one of the few places I’m not engaged in some project or on my way to the next one, and my mind has a chance to catch up with my body. Last week I finished the first draft of a book, and I’m in the process of submitting a proposal to a publisher. In filling out the publisher’s form, I’m asked for an annotated Table of Contents—basically, summarizing the book in a few sentences, chapter by chapter. With hot water relaxing my neck and shoulders, and with shampoo stinging my left eye, I pondered how to compose that annotated Table of Contents, and it came to me that, in developing the argument of the book, I had found in the Judeo/Christian Scriptures, and particularly in the Hebrew Scriptures, what amounts to two distinct G(g)od images, each incompatible with the other; indeed, diametrically opposite. If I’m totally honest with myself and with my...

               I have a lot of hand tools in my garage: hammers, saws, screwdrivers, pliers, etc. And I have a lot of power tools: table saw, saber saw, drills, sanders, router, and even a power paint sprayer. My computer is a tool in my vocation. In our home we have a dish washer, and washing machine and dryer, vacuum cleaner, brooms and mops… But here’s the thing: none of those tools does anything—until I pick one up and use it. There is no inherent value in any of my tools. They are no better or worse than my skill level. Marketing is a tool. It has no inherent value except in theory. In practice, it is no better or worse than the one who applies it. Sadly, an increasing number apply it in ways that are “worse.” In his 1957 classic, Hidden Persuaders , [1] Vance Packard exposed the manipulative and exploitive ways marketing was being used. Today, marketing has become intrusive and even invasive. But that’s not the tool’s fault! Stat...

I think... I’m not sure. I think I see a hint of light through the trees as I gaze eastward across my back yard. Even in the darkness the snow is visible on the ground and on virtually every other flat surface. It was 31.9 degrees outside when I dragged my stiff old body out from under the comforting warmth of my side of the electric blanket. 31.9 degrees, heading for the mid 40s by mid-day; the first time the temperature will been above freezing since Sunday. Inside, I smell the coffee brewing, and cinch my robe belt a bit tighter. The house is in a transitional state—kind of an organized clutter—as we already have begun to take down the Christmas decorations. Boxes and plastic totes are stacked hither and yon, grouped according to room so I can store them for easy identification immediately after Thanksgiving this fall. It’s the middle of January, and we’ve already started the de-Christmas process. Some folk can’t wait to get it packed awayk. They start December 26 and have it d...

  Happy Fourth of July, America! My celebration will have a cloud over it. Two more mass shootings overnight; ten in the last seven days (and today isn’t half over yet!) Eleven people killed, eighty wounded, and only two shooter/suspects arrested. More than 200 thus far this year, and in each of the last three years more than 600, averaging almost two per day! 4243 mass shooting deaths in the last 9½ years (source: Gun Violence Archive ~  ​How many US mass shootings have there been in 2023? - BBC News ). The numbers are devastating, and the fact that it continues unabated and unchallenged is completely baffling. Why is nobody with authority and position doing anything concrete to stop this? The second amendment is sacrosanct and permanent. For at least the next several generations there will never be enough votes in congress, nor enough states in the union to overturn it. And its unflinching cult will not consider any boundaries or limitations or qualifications. So eliminatin...

In a culture heavy into everything that’s wrong and passionate about everything one should be against, it behooves a person of integrity and decency on occasion to review and share what he or she supports. In no particular order, at this particular point in my life, here is what I support. [1] ·          I support substantive ideas over generalizations. ·          I support having something redemptive to offer. ·          I support public and private help for vulnerable people who are placed in our path. ·          I support engaging in difficult conversations about complex issues and testing and trusting my words and my ideas. ·          I support public policies and transparent politics that give hope and inspire vision, that give honest appraisal of challenges and consider al...

Isaiah 40:3 (NRSVUE) “A voice cries out: ‘In the wilderness prepare the way of the  Lord ; make straight in the desert a highway for our God…’” That familiar verse has been on my mind today. Immortalized in George Frederick Handel’s Oratorio, “Messiah,” it’s from the prologue to what is known as “Deutero (Second) Isaiah” (chapters 40-55). It came from the school of Isaiah’s disciples, dating around the end of Babylonian exile. Its mood is both encouraging and empty. Encouraging because it lifts up a hope for a coming of God and calls for preparation. Empty because the announcement is made in the wilderness. What image comes to mind as you read about a voice crying out in the wilderness? I see a lone figure standing in some barren landscape, all alone, crying out some important message, and I’m reminded of the philosophical discussion starter, “If a tree falls in the wilderness and no one is around to hear it, does ...

 Can we talk? Is it just me, or does it seem that, in general, Christianity has evolved into a matter of who’s right and who’s wrong? Even among the theological elitists, there is almost a smugness in finding something "wrong" in someone else's witness.  Maybe it’s always been that way. The New Testament Gospels, written in the last half of the first century partly responded to heresy. The epistles, written a generation or so earlier, even though they were primarily personal letters addressing practical questions, also addressed foundations of doctrine and confronted “false teachings.” Peter and Paul, the primary influencers of the first generation of the church—Peter in Jerusalem among Jewish converts and Paul throughout Turkey, Greece and into Rome, working among Greco/Roman converts—carried on a bitter disagreement until it was resolved at the Jerusalem Council (cf. Acts 15). What we learn through their dispute and its resolution is that Christianity is adaptable...