The other week, we peaked behind the apocalyptic veil of the Book of Revelation and saw how the anticipated Lion of Judah was in fact ‘the Lamb-Who-Was-Slain’, who alone was able unseal the heavenly scroll. In less symbolic language, it was saying that it was the nonviolent offering up his own life is what made … Continue reading Limitless: A Reflection on Revelation 21.1-6
Last time, we looked at the Bible through a critical lens, asking whose text it is and whose it isn’t. But postmodernism isn’t just about asking hard questions of existing systems and structures (including sacred ones), but also about asking those same hard questions of ourselves. We don’t just look for biases in the text … Continue reading Big Questions: How Is My Context Impacting my Reading?
Postmodernism has often gotten a bad rap in Christian circles. But to my mind, it has offered us many wonderful gifts — not the least of which has been the lifting up of voices that have not historically been heard in the Church (at least in the past few hundred years): especially the voices of … Continue reading Big Questions: Whose Text is It?
[This post was originally published in 2022, the last time today's readings were in the lectionary. Since the message I wanted to share today was pretty much exactly the same as this, I thought I'd share it again.] Insider and outsider, right and wrong, orthodox and heterodox, us and them — If there’s one thing … Continue reading The Shepherd’s Sheep: A Reflection on John 10.22-30 (Repost)
There’s an old saying in hermeneutics that “A text can’t mean what it never meant.” It’s a warning against truly novel readings of ancient texts; after all, if something has been read for two thousand years, it’s unlikely that you’re going to be the first to ‘crack the code’ ! I say ‘truly novel’ because … Continue reading Big Questions: : What do traditional readings say about the text (and the tradition)?
Matthew Root 