A few weeks ago, after a very poor sleep, I got up one morning with unhappy thoughts racing through my head. I got ready for work with my usual array of podcasts, though I wasn’t really able to hear any of them. Finally, as I was walking down the hill which forms the first part … Continue reading Silence
Last week, I wrote about the problems we have in our culture talking about sin. I ended the post saying that I think a helpful way forward in developing our ability to talk about it is to reclaim the biblical metaphors that underlie unhelpful translations like ‘sin’ and ‘wickedness’. As I was contemplating this, I … Continue reading Living and Effective
A couple years ago, I stumbled across the text of Jonathan Edwards’ famous sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” The title says it all. The sermon’s primary aim was to convince people of the horrors of Hell and to use this fear to spur them to repentance. I have to admit that … Continue reading Missing the Mark (or, Talking about Sin)
This week was the first full week of Lent, and so I wanted the practice for this week to be a specifically Lenten practice. And, since I first encountered it twelve years ago, no practice has jumped out at me as being ‘more’ Lenten, than the Lenten Prayer of St. Ephrem the Syrian. The famed … Continue reading Lenten Prayer of St. Ephrem the Syrian
[Originally posted two years ago on my old blog] Those of you who know me undoubtedly know my deeply ambivalent feelings about Lent, or more accurately, about how Lent tends to be celebrated. Too often this season of penitence is defined by external things, like the lack of flowers on the altar, or depriving oneself … Continue reading A Bright Lent
Matthew Root 