The Minister’s Uniform
You board the Metra train at Arlington Heights station one afternoon, heading to downtown Chicago for some sight-seeing. As the train departs from the station, a man in jeans, a striped t-shirt, and a Kansas City Royals baseball cap enters your train car, and begins asking to see each passenger’s ticket. To your surprise, most people hand him their tickets without question. But when he […]
Hymn of the Justified
Romans 8:31-39 is better sung than commented upon. It’s a thrilling, ecstatic hymn of boisterous assurance that God’s purposes will be accomplished. Yet, I will attempt to comment on them. If we sing Paul’s hymn, let’s make sure we sing with understanding. Given the character of these verses, it’s easy and understandable that they, like Romans 8:28-30, are often cited apart from their context. But […]
Growing up Nostalgic: Perpetual Adolescence and the Kingdom Come
“An ethic unshaped by eschatology is neither Jesus’ nor Christian.” – Tremper Longman How does an immature culture grow up? Edgar Wright’s Baby Driver is about the dangers of being lost in adolescence. By the end of the movie, the viewer is pointed to a road we infer leads to maturity, but only after a cinematically stunning tour de force. The imbedded rhythm of the […]
Strong Magic Takes Blood
Prolegomena 1. “You’re a pastor,” my new friend says as we sit down, “and you’re a massage therapist. How does that work?” To her, Christianity implies stuffy ideology, a disregard of the physical. A Christian massage therapist is an oddity; a pastor massage therapist is nearly a contradiction in terms. I understand her incredulity; in my experience, even most Christians share it. Which is tragic. […]
Why Poles Love Trump
54% of Poles think favorably of Americans, only 13% unfavorably, according to Centrum Badania Opinii Spolecznej. Ten years ago, the numbers were 44% and 21% respectively. Twenty years ago, they were 64% and 6%. Back in the 1990s, Americans were the most liked nation among Poles. Now they are in the fourth place. During the years which Barack Obama spent in the White House, the […]
