The Bible as "Story", part 3: "Waiting for the Messiah..."

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Detention diary, day 2: “Good Friday behind bars”

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       Lent 2025, day 39.   It wasn’t your typical Good Friday service.   The 15 detainees arrived in the visiting area in waves.   Finally, everyone was assembled and a motley crew began to (ostensibly) commemorate the death of Jesus of Nazareth – Muslims, Sikhs and Christians together, from all around the globe.   Indeed, during this time of prayer and recollection, each individual had a very different experience and understood something uniquely personal.   Isaiah 53 was read in French, the Psalm in English and St. John’s passion narrative in Spanish.   During the “Laments of Christ against his faithless church” [1] , we sung the refrain, “Jesus, remember me, when you come into your kingdom”.   We ended this liturgical moment by forming a circle, joining hands and offering spontaneous prayers of gratitude to Christ and supplications for each other, each pray-er addressing his God in his language.      Follow...
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Bonhoeffer's quest for a credible Christianity

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       Prophets have always been critical of “religious” institutions – in ancient Israel, this meant the cultic life of the tabernacle/temple which was overseen by priests and which was intimately associated with the Israelite monarch from the time of King Solomon.   Of course, a formalized liturgical life could easily lead to hypocrisy and a “cultural/civic religion” which, as Marx would denounce many centuries later, [1] could simply lend itself to the maintenance of the status quo, as opposed to producing real justice in society (cf. Micah 6.8; Jer. 7.1-15, etc.).   As opposed to religious practice that was merely “ritualistic”, prophetic religion was always concerned with faithfulness to the covenant with Yahweh – i.e. living a life of justice vis-à-vis God and your fellow humans (cf. Dt. 6.5; 11.13; 13.3; Lev. 19.18, 34).   The prophets of Israel were ruthless in their critique of religious observance that was not accompanied by a passionate con...
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“Can dreams come true?” a sermon for PENTECOST 2025 (JUNE 08)

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  “When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion,     we were like those who dream . Then our mouth was filled with laughter     and our tongue with shouts of joy; then it was said among the nations,    “The Lord has done great things for them.” (Ps. 126.1-2; cf. Ac. 2.11)      Have you ever woken up into a dream?   That’s the feeling expressed in this psalm.   Perhaps it refers to the return of the people of God from exile in Babylon.   The understanding was that the exile had been the result of the people’s sin (cf. Is. 40.1-2).   Have you ever been so happy that all you could do was laugh?   God had restored the fortunes of his people in a totally unexpected way .   The appropriate response was to shout for joy!   The dreamer of this psalm is laughing and cheering, and probably crying.   God came through!     As they say, “sometimes dreams do come true”. ...
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