Is There No Other Prophet?

The vocation of prophets is to proclaim what they believe God wants done at any given period of time and in any situation of any people or nations. Spiritually, religiously, politically, militarily, sociologically, and ethically, what does God want us to do? Often what prophets say is not popular, but they feel compelled to say it anyway.

Whatever Happened to the Jubilee?

In scores of passages in the Hebrew Bible, reference is made to God’s special concern for people who are poor and destitute, especially poor Israelites, but also those who are referred to as “strangers and sojourners in your midst.” That phrase means foreign workers, or, in 21st century American terms, immigrants or “green-card people.” The might be people like – to pick an example out of the air – Cubans, Vietnamese, or Afghans In every economic system in every nation throughout human history, inevitably there have been many poor people and a few rich people, and then everyone else in between. Regardless of how or why anybody gets to be poor, the Bible insists that God always displays a special regard for those people.

The Brilliant Defendant and the Bewildered Judge

In these four sermons on Paul, I have been trying to convince you, if you need convincing, that without Paul, there would be no Christianity. Whatever we may think of his ideas and his theology, he was nothing if not a persistent preacher for Jesus Christ. He became the apostle to the Gentiles, and by the end of the first century Christianity was completely a Gentile movement. Nevertheless, Paul never gave up trying to convert anyone within sound of his voice, and his voice sounded loudly and frequently wherever he was.

The Apostle Paul and Jesus

I have been doing some speculating about the man who, next to Jesus himself, was the second-most important individual in the foundation of Christianity and the New Testament Church. To be precise, there are far more words written by Paul in his thirteen letters than words which were written in the four Gospels that Jesus was reported to have said. But Paul was nearly completely silent about what Jesus said or did until he was crucified and then God raised him from the dead. What explains that silence?

The Apostle Paul and Sex

Today I want to address some of Paul’s views on human sexuality. There have been many treatises written about Paul’s views about sex, and probably a few short books have been written about it, but I suspect that not many sermons have been preached about it. I am doing this because I am convinced that indirectly Paul has had a major negative effect on how millions of Christians down through the centuries have chosen to live their lives on the basis of what the Number One New Testament Apostle had to say about sex.

Law and Grace, Jews and Christians

Should all Christians, Jews and Gentiles alike, be required to follow the laws of the Torah? Apparently Peter tended to think so, but Paul vehemently denied that. Because most future Christians were Gentiles, no doubt that rescued Christianity from becoming a failure before it had even had a viable beginning. Those who were not raised with the Torah would never accept all its dictates as adults.

The Origin of Original Sin

Even people who know almost nothing about the Bible know the story of Adam and Eve and Eden. If you ask people in Hell’s Kitchen in Manhattan or in the slums of Kolkata or in Teheran, Iran what was the forbidden fruit that Adam and Eve ate, they will tell you: apples. The forbidden fruit was an apple. What variety of apple apparently no one ever thought about. Of course there was no forbidden fruit, because there was no Adam and Eve. But that’s why myths are so powerful: we know the content of the stories, and in our minds we convert the stories into actual history, which the mythmakers never intended to happen.

Job: What Happens When Things Happen?

Job is a classic literary illustration of Murphy’s Law: If anything can go wrong, it will. Job was a very wealthy man, but in a matter of days he lost everything --- every vestige of his extraordinary wealth was stolen, all his servants were massacred by enemy tribesmen, and finally all of his ten adult children were killed when the building collapsed in which they were staying during a terrible windstorm, and finally Job himself was afflicted by painful sores, presumably carbuncle boils. But through it all Job was still able to declare, “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord.”

Job: Things Happen

How are we supposed to act when terrible things happen? When suffering descends upon us, what are we supposed to do? Is it not natural to ask God why all this has befallen us? Who can be so praiseworthy as to take calamity in stride, as though it is nothing? Nothing? Nothing! When sorrow engulfs us, it is everything, and who but God can obliterate it? But will He? Will He?