Raw Materials

YEP, I JUST LAUNCHED ANOTHER BLOG!  HAPPY READING!

 BIEN OUI, JE VIENS TOUT JUSTE DE LANCER UN AUTRE BLOGUE!  BONNE VISITE!






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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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Apologetics & culture wars

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  1: The cross & the conversion of the imagination       The Church of Jesus Christ owes its very existence to “imaginative apologetics”. [1]   While for us, the challenge of apologetics may consist in finding imaginative “parallels” with the tenets of Christian orthodoxy (à la Aslan=Jesus) [2] or techniques to better communicate the gospel, for the apostle Paul, the irreducible content of his message demanded that his audience undergo what Richard B. Hays called “a conversion of the imagination”. [3]   As Paul himself points out, the message of a crucified Lord is an oxymoron, “foolishness” (Gr: moron ) to Greeks and a scandal to Jews (1 Cor. 1.18ff).   In God’s strange providence, Paul’s gospel did indeed accomplish its mission of converting imaginations and lives (cf. 1 Cor. 1.21; 2.1-5). [4]      Indeed, Paul’s gospel was not only logically absurd, it was also politically subversive.   Jesus’ crucifixion had not been...
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“Where is Jesus and what is he up to?” a sermon for the 5th SUNDAY OF EASTER (18 May 2025)

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     Where’s Jesus?   In 1893, Oscar Wilde wrote a one-act play called Salome .   Here is an excerpt, where the dialogue takes place in the court of Herod Antipas, tetrarch of Galilee.   The biblical background for this scene is Lk. 9.1-9 : “Then Jesus called the twelve together and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal… They departed and went through the villages, bringing the good news…   Now Herod the ruler heard about all that had taken place, and he was perplexed, because it was said by some that John had been raised from the dead, by some that Elijah had appeared, and by others that one of the ancient prophets had arisen. Herod said, “John I beheaded; but who is this about whom I hear such things?” And he tried to see him .”   Salome (1893) HEROD Concerning whom then did he speak? FIRST NAZARENE Concerning Messiah,...
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