Alienation and Communion

This series has attempted to normalize 'sin' (without minimizing it) by looking at some of the many ways the idea of sin and its positive counterpart, salvation, are described in the Bible. Each of the images offers a different perspective on what it is that has gone wrong with the human experiment, and therefore a … Continue reading Alienation and Communion

Hunger and Feeding: A Reflection on Halloween and All Saints Day, Isaiah 25, and Sin and Salvation

Today, or I should say more properly tonight, is Halloween, the celebration of all that is macabre and ghoulish. It's hard to think of Halloween without envisioning ghosts, with all their associations of unfinished business, and unfilled longing. I'm reminded once again of the Buddhist notion of the 'hungry ghosts', an existential state where those … Continue reading Hunger and Feeding: A Reflection on Halloween and All Saints Day, Isaiah 25, and Sin and Salvation

Sight to the Blind: A Reflection on Mark 10.46-52

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

Bondage and Freedom

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