The Bible starts with the stunning image of God taking a primordial shapeless void and lovingly turning it into the lush green and blue world that we know. Where God is at work, there is life. This is the message of the first chapter of the Scriptures and is the basic premise behind the metaphor … Continue reading Barrenness and Fertility
The four Gospels all tell the story of Jesus in different ways: for Matthew Jesus is primarily a teacher, extending and enriching the Law; for Mark he is an apocalyptic figure, ushering in a new age (just don't tell anyone about it); for Luke he is a prophet with deep concern for the marginalized; and … Continue reading Sight to the Blind: A Reflection on Mark 10.46-52
One of the reasons I wanted to tackle this series looking at different Biblical metaphors for sin and salvation is that Western Christianity has, over the past thousand years, come to ignore a lot of this diversity. The ancient abundance of images has been replaced with an almost singular focus on a criminal justice metaphor … Continue reading Bondage and Freedom
Over the past few weeks, the Sunday Gospels have included some hard-hitting, at times difficult, teaching about sin, a focus which has also led to think more about sin in my new midweek series. Talking about sin is difficult, but even if we normalize talking about it and recognize that it's all around us, including … Continue reading Melchizedek: A Reflection on Hebrews 5.1-10
Last week, I wrote about what I see as a need to normalize sin without minimizing it. If we want to have better relationships with ourselves, creation, each other, and God, we need to be able to talk about the ways in which we harm those relationships, 'in thought, word, and deed,' 'by what we … Continue reading Debt and Forgiveness
Matthew Root 