Category: Blog
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“Do Not Endeavour to Shuffle Away or Evade Those Strong Words” (Wesley)
So John Wesley was sighted last week in an “I heart Pelagius” T-shirt, and Christian Buzzfeed has the .gif. But even if you’ve already taken the clickbait, I can ‘splain. You won’t believe what happened next. In a recent blog post, Lee Gatiss quoted a snippet from John Wesley, a few words which certainly seem to…
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When He Became a Child, the Affection Came
Francis Spufford wrote not long ago of “why, despite everything, Christianity can still make surprising emotional sense.” The great paradoxes of the faith–incarnation and crucifixion–would seem to resist any attempt to “make sense” of them. But, if one best enters these mysteries bowed low in humility and wide-eyed in wonder, one might yet discern something…
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God’s Substantial Word (Lesson 9: John 1)
We’ve said a lot of things tonight. We’ve spoken so many clumsy words, and we’ve sung so many beautiful ones, but now they’re all gone. They echoed around for a while but then they faded out. Everything we’ve said and everything we’ve sung, all the lessons and all the carols, bounced around inside these walls…
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A Wedding Homily for Scott and Joanne
for Scott Munekawa and Joanne Santomauro, December 21, 2014 Scott and Joanne, welcome to your wedding! Don’t they look beautiful, everyone? What a delightful day; there’s such a rich sense of arrival about a day like today, isn’t there? And here you are, my friends! At the beginning of the ceremony, we sang a lovely…
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Angels Above to Shepherds Below (Lesson 8: Luke 2)
We all wonder about angels, and angels are all about wonder. I have so many questions about angels. Do they fly by flapping their wings, or more like Superman? Do they sing? What do you call a group of angels? A herd of cows, a flock of sheep, a what of angels? A choir? A…
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An Odd Place (Lesson 7: Luke 2)
Caesar Augustus was ruler of Rome. He called himself Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Divi Filius Imperator, and throughout the Roman Empire his subjects called him son of God and lord of all. When he gave a command it was absolute law, and when he spoke, people moved. Now it came to be that in those…
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Torrey Christmas Card, Interpreted
This year for our Christmas card, the faculty and staff of the Torrey Honors Institute chose a winter theme. This sent us all to our closets and garages to find coats, scarves, and hats that don’t get much use here in Southern California. One of our art students, Katya Austin, gave us some instructions and…
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Trinity Episodes on White Horse Inn
I’m a guest on two recent episodes of the White Horse Inn, along with regulars Mike Horton, Kim Riddlebarger, and Rod Rosenbladt. The topic is the Trinity, and the two shows are in support of the latest issue of Modern Reformation magazine, The Trinity Issue (with articles by me, Carl Trueman, James White, etc.). The…
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Knowing the Names (Lesson 6: Matthew 1)
As the arrival of Christ draws nearer, all the names by which he is to be called really begin piling up. We first heard about him as the seed of the woman who would defeat the seed of the serpent. The prophet said he would be called wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting father, prince of…
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Annunciation Gap (Lesson 5: Luke 1)
Nobody knows what Mary was doing in her home in Nazareth when the angel Gabriel arrived there from God. Most painters who have made pictures of the scene have shown her reading the Bible or saying her prayers. A few show her at some household task like laundry or mending; I’ve never seen her washing…
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Little Micah, Little Bethlehem (Lesson 4: Micah 5)
The book of Micah is a very small book, somewhere just past the middle of the Bible. It’s in there somewhere. It’s somewhere between Daniel and Malachi, between Amos and Zephaniah, between Obadiah and Habakkuk, between Jonah and Nahum. It’s down where the mighty stream of Old Testament salvation history starts narrowing to a trickle. It’s…
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Prophet and Apostle (Lesson 3: Isaiah 9)
The prophet says: The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; The evangelist answers: The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. The prophet says: Those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone. The apostles answer: He has delivered us…