Colleagues, I started some weeks ago to pass along the superb presentations we heard at the Crossings Conference this past January. You’ve gotten two of them so far. When I looked again at the one you’re receiving this week and next (again, in two parts), I was startled to see how well it serves as a reflection on the …
A Scientist’s Easter Witness
Colleagues, This will be the shortest post ever. I wish this Easter week merely to pass along a brief essay that a Facebook friend inserted in the daily feed. It’s by one Ian Hutchison, a brother in Christ of whom I knew nothing until today. He teaches at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He also brings energy and diligence to …
Rob Saler on the Publicly Engaged Church, Part 2 (Rich Fare for Holy Week)
Colleagues, Here is the second half of the essay you started reading last week. I don’t need to underscore its timeliness for people who are about to meditate on the Passion of Christ, and preach it too, perhaps. You’ll see that for yourself. Savor the gift. As for Rob Saler, through whom the Spirit is delivering the goods, thanks …
A Most Timely Essay on “The Spirit and the Publicly Engaged Church”
Colleagues, For proof that the spirits abroad in the world are legion, one needs only to listen for five minutes to the current campaign for U.S. president. An astonishing business it’s proving to be—astonishing in St. Mark’s sense of something that befuddles and dismays. As it happens, the further we get into it, the more impressed I become …
Steve Turnbull on “The New Humanity,” Part 2.
Colleagues, Today we pass along the second half of the paper Steve Turnbull delivered at the Crossings conference in January. Again you’ll find observations that are sure to prove helpful when Holy Week gets here. I’m thanking Steve right now for focusing my attention on “governance” as a central issue, if not the central issue, in all four Passion accounts. …
Steve Turnbull on “The New Humanity.” A Must-Read for Holy Week. Part 1.
Colleagues, I sat, I listened, I learned. That was a month ago, when Exegete Steve Turnbull took the podium at January’s Crossings conference. Our overarching topic was “Law, Gospel, and Holy Spirit,” with a particular focus on the “double life” of the baptized. Steve’s assignment was to get things rolling with an exploration of John 3, where these …
Two Covenants, not One. A Book Review
Colleagues, If you wonder why the pace of these posts is being suddenly stepped up, it’s because there’s suddenly a heap of material to pass along. Expect to see a temporary return to the old weekly schedule, at least through Lent. Our offering this week is a three-month old review by Ed Schroeder of a recent book by …
A Gift for Lent from Jill Peláez Baumgaertner, Poet and Theologian
Colleagues, I spent some time yesterday smudging foreheads with ashy crosses. Were someone to ask why I did that, I’d want suddenly to hand them the poem you’re about to read, withholding further comment until they’d spent some time digesting it. Then, I think, we’d talk for a while about imago dei, the image of God (see Gen. …
Last Week’s Sixth Crossings Conference. A Quick Review
Colleagues, It’s been a week and a day since I got home from the Great Feast at Belleville, Illinois, otherwise known as the latest Crossings conference. We’d held six of these so far. This was among the best. The main event that kicked off on Tuesday morning featured six riveting presentations, one after the other, by speakers who, …
Crossings: for Bruce Modahl on his retirement
Jill Peláez Baumgaertner 841 W. Monroe St., #5PH Chicago, IL 60607 Jill.baumgaertner@wheaton.edu Crossings for Bruce Modahl on his retirement Both irises, each fingerprint, our own. Each strand of DNA, ourself, whose bones descend from Adam’s dust, whose breath is God’s. And we are called by name, each hair imprinted and the tiny bones inside our ears. We …