It took a wild and crazy guy—someone out of his mind—to recognize who Jesus was.

It happened early in the ministry of Jesus at a synagogue in Capernaum where he was teaching with great effectiveness. That is, the folks gathered there on the Sabbath were impressed by how different this young rabbi was from the scribes who were their normal fare. Evidently it wasn’t just what he was teaching but also the authority with which he taught.

Those were people in their right minds: tame and typical. more

By now, I think we can safely assume, the sages from the East were headed back home—wherever home was. more

Christmas is, after all, an invented date…The much more serious question is whether Christianity itself is an invented faith. more

Very few things spark my ire more quickly, and then manage to sustain that anger longer, than TV commercials…The current rare exception is an ad for United Healthcare insurance. more

Except for that dramatic encounter on the road to Damascus, the actual connections between Paul and Jesus aren’t all that clear…But it is clear that Paul did get the point. more

Some portions of scripture seriously tempt me to abandon my Christian faith and go on the lookout for another religious tradition that more unambiguously represents what I understand to be the truth and efficacy about the God proclaimed and demonstrated by Jesus of Nazareth. more

Thank God (literally) our Roman Catholic and Orthodox sisters and brother aren’t biblical literalists. Otherwise, they certainly would be in big trouble with Jesus and his teachings about what we call ourselves. more

A friend reminded me awhile back that when the Pharisees were trying to trick Jesus in order to entrap him during that last week of his earthly life, he finessed their own entrapment. The question the Pharisees raised was simple: Is it, or is it not, lawful to pay taxes to the emperor? more

Living in a large city where poor people rent sub-standard housing at inflated rents from unknown owners who collect their booty from afar through hired intermediaries doesn’t predispose a reader to a sympathetic assessment in a story about an absentee landlord…But that kind of sympathy toward the absentee landlord is exactly what the writers of the Gospels ask of us in a narrative assigned to the voice of Jesus. more

It seems so blatantly unfair, doesn’t it? Even unjust. Jesus tells this story of a vineyard owner who had fields that needed tending. Early in the morning the vintner goes to that place where day laborers gather to find job opportunities and finds a group eager to secure employment. more