Sturtz Stuff

A thought from the book of Ecclesiastes Just what kind of a book is this? Well that is a good question. Ecclesiastes is a counter-intuitive book. It is a book that is brutally honest about life and death.   Because it is a very honest book it is often difficult to read and often over looked. The master teacher of Ecclesiastes begins and ends his book by calling life meaningless. If you peel back the English translation of meaningless you will discover the Hebrew the word הֶבֶל ( hebel). Hebel (pronounced heh'vel ) in Hebrew means vapor or mist. If you read chapters one and two the master teacher says that wealth, horses, gold, silver, money, cars, boats are all vapor. Wisdom, understanding, knowledge, intelligence, learning, education, thoughts are all mist. Vineyards, trees, fruit, sun, water, wind, stars, sky, generations, wise, foolish are all vapor. Your body – vapor – it will drupe and sag. Your life, your friend’s life – here today and gone tomorrow. Life itself acc...

Here is some stuff to consider from Richard Beck . . . . One of the most discussed posts I've written on this blog was The Bait and Switch of Contemporary Christianity . That post was a meditation on how we tend to use "religion" as a replacement for being a more decent human being. We'd rather have "quiet time with God" or "get into the word" than forgive our enemies or spend time working at a homeless shelter. In making that observation I made this sweeping statement: "Christianity" has essentially become a mechanism for allowing millions of people to replace being a decent human being with something else, an endorsed "spiritual" substitute. I stand by that statement. As would, I think, most of the Old Testament prophets. And Jesus. But maybe I'm wrong. Keep reading click here .

Here is a thought from Peter Enns on the issuse of violence in the OT: My seminary Hebrew professor, former colleague, and friend, Al Groves , who is of blessed memory , was a wonderful, honest, and pastoral man. When dealing with the theological difficulties that arise in the course of reading the Bible, Al would say, “God lets his children tell the story.” That is a great way of putting it. The Bible is what happens when God allows his children to tell his story–which means the biblical writers told the story from their point of view, with their limitations, within the cultural context in which they wrote. When children tell the story of their father or mother, parents are typically delighted by how much they get and the childlike way that they see the world. But they are also well aware that children miss a lot when they tell the story, and invariably refract the complexities of family life through their own youthful vision. It’s not a perfect analogy, I know, but roll with it...

  Ezekiel 18:1-4: The word of the Lord came to me: “What do you people mean by quoting this proverb about the land of Israel: “‘The parents eat sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge’?     “As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, you will no longer quote this proverb in Israel. For everyone belongs to me, the parent as well as the child—both alike belong to me. The one who sins is the one who will die."              This was a popular saying among those in exile. It suggests that the reason why the exiles are suffering is because of what their parents had done. Our parents rebelled. Our parents were stiff necked.   Our parents forgot about the poor and the needy. Our parents desecrated the temple. Thus the reason why we are hundreds of miles of home is because our parents sinned and God is punishing us for what our parents did. Our parents ate sour grapes and now our te...

Stringfellow opens the final chapter of A Private and Public Faith -- The Fear of God--with with a powerful idea: The ministry of the Church as the Body of Christ in the world is the same as the ministry of Christ. The ministry of Christ is the ministry of a servant in the world and for the world--a servant of the world in the name of God. Like Christ the Christian is called to be "a servant in the world" and "a servant of the world in the name of God." What does that look like? Stringfellow continues with one of those passages of his that routinely takes your breath away: Perhaps it is helpful to notice a few things about the ministry of Christ. One is that the ministry of Christ is a ministry of great extravagance--of a reckless, scandalous expenditure of His life for the sake of the world's life. Christ gives away His life. The world finds new life in His life and His gift of His life to the world. His is not a very prudential life, not a...

I must admit that I have not seen or even heard of the movie Lars and the Real Girl. Yet, after reading this little bit by Richard Beck (professor at Abilene Christian University) my interest is peaked. Here is a little clip from the movie on  YouTube .  The video clip shows a discussion by church members if the main character Lars should be allowed to attend church. The concern over Lars attendance has to do with his delusional relationship with a life size sex doll that he has named Bianca. Although Lars relationship with Bianca is very chaste it is still odd. As the movie continues many friends of Lars begin to treat/accept Bianca like she was a real person. This acceptance opens the door for Lars to deal with his real issues. Eventually Bianca and Lars are welcomed when they attend church. So I watched the video clip from the movie and found myself laughing and concerned at the same time. What I saw in the video clip ...

Larry Hurtado is a scholar of the New Testament and Christian origins. In August 2011 he retired from the University of Edinburgh which he served from 1996. He has written much on the subjects of early Christianity and early "devotion to Jesus". Recently he submitted a paper about God's love and Christian ethics. Here is a summary of the paper in the words of Larry Hurtado . . . I was honored to be invited again to the Second Nishan Forum, held May 2012 in Jining, China, and to contribute again a paper to the conference. I have now placed the text of my paper (PDF) under the “Selected Essays” tab. The jist of my paper is that (1) the NT emphasis on the biblical deity as loving the world, and this love as the prime basis for God’s acts toward the world, is rather novel in the Roman religious environment, and (2) that this divine love serves rather consistently as the basis and pattern for the actions that believers are called to exhibit. I make no claims about how c...