The Rambling Disciple

The birth of the ancient nation of Israel was truly a unique event. Imagine it from the perspective of an ancient Israelite living in Egypt. You are a slave. You have been your entire life, as have your parents and grandparents before going back several generations. You do not have much of a national identity. All you have ever known is servitude to Egypt and the Pharaohs. Your entire life has been spent in fear of the Egyptian gods. Clearly they are powerful, otherwise you wouldn't have been enslaved. Your ancestors worshiped a God too, YHWH his name was, but no one seems to have heard from him in a while. You live in abject terror of the horrors they, embodied by the living god-king Pharaoh, might do to you and your family. Thousands of men, women, and even children have been slaughtered at this tyrant's command. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, Moses arrives. This man is a Hebrew like you, but he was raised under very different circumstances. He grew up in the house of ...

Do we really consider what's going on when we partake of the Lord's Supper? Often times it feels like we don't take the Lord's Supper seriously. It's that time on Sunday mornings where we say a few words about Jesus' death, pass come crackers and juice, and sit in silence. While many do use this as a time of prayer and reflection, as a collective it feels like a necessary inconvenience. It's just something we have to do because we are commanded to do it. The highest praise we can offer the one presiding over communion is, often times, that they kept their thoughts brief. The Lord's Supper is best when it is done quickly and efficiently, leaving more time for the sermon. We take it because we must. Again, I know many Christians who use this time to focus on Christ. The problem, I think, lies in the way we treat it as a community. At the heart of this problem is, of course, a theological issue. We don't know what the Lord's Supper is. Tra...

Every week around the world millions of Christians gather together in the name of Jesus. Followers of Christ from hundreds of different traditions meet together to worship God and study Scripture. While they come from every tribe, nation, and tongue there is one thing every week that these Christians celebrate in common; the Lord's Supper. The Lord's Supper, or Eucharist, is one of the great commonalities of the various Christian traditions. While there is some disagreement on what actually happens during the breaking of the bread and taking of the cup, all agree that the Lord's Supper is an indispensable part of the Christian faith. It is one of the great gifts that unites us. I believe that there is a lot to learn from the Lord's Supper. That's why an ongoing series on this blog will be Reflections on the Lord's Supper. This is the first of several posts examining the mystery that is the supper of our Lord. They won't be back to back, but I think th...

What is the Bible? This is one of the central questions that dominates the Christian faith. It is essential to have an answer to this question. Knowing what the Bible is, and is not, influences our entire walk of faith. What you believe the Bible to be determines how you read it and what you read it for. The Churches of Christ, my tradition and the tradition of most of my readers, was founded on taking the Bible seriously. The early members wanted to get away from the various creeds, traditions, and articles of faith that defined so many other denominations. They wanted to be Christians only, without the added denominational titles. To do this they turned to Scripture as their sole authority. This ethic has continued to the present day. You will be hard pressed to find a group of people who long for biblical teaching more than us. This is a quality I am proud of and I think it speaks volumes of my brothers and sisters' heart for God. In our efforts to treat the Bible with r...

As we approach Valentine's Day, the subject of love looms over us. It is the season of romantic gestures, fancy dates, and heart shaped chocolates. Little angels in diapers with arrows adorn stores and the colors pink and red are everywhere. Our culture has something of an obsession with romantic love. While the Valentine's season accentuates this craze, it exists year round. Just think of the number of songs that are written, from any era, that concern romance in some way. Most movies aren't complete without a romance subplot woven into the script. Suffice it to say that we love, well, love. Or at least we think we do. Confusing Our Terms The common understanding of love is that of a feeling. Love is that feeling you get in the pit of your stomach, or the warm fuzzy feeling you get when you are with someone you like. We define love in a variety of ways, most of which have to do with feelings. What has happened is that we have confused love with two other emotion...