The reading today from Genesis recounts what is for my money one of the most powerful stories in all of Western religion: Joseph's reconciliation with his brothers. While I have never done a deep-dive on this passage here, I have commented before on Joseph's remarkable, gracious reframing of his brothers' betrayal in terms of God's … Continue reading A Tale of Two Brothers
One of the preferred teaching tools in the Bible is the parable, an extended metaphor used to explain some truth about our relationship with God. Often these are left uninterpreted in the text and so it’s up to us to explore their depths. This can be frustrating as a reader who just wants to understand … Continue reading Potter’s Clay (A reflection on Jeremiah 18.1-11)
As long-time readers will know, one of my favorite lines in all of literature comes from Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s The Gulag Archipelago: “The line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either — but right through every human heart — and through all human hearts.” It is a … Continue reading Hearts of Flesh (A Reflection on Ezekiel 11.14-25)
I wrote earlier this week about my concerns about what I’ve seen from the Church’s attitude to religious ‘nones’, and more specifically to those who identify as ‘spiritual-but-not-religious.’ In this post I’d like to take a more positive approach, and look at some of the important lessons we might take from the rise of the … Continue reading Questions from the Nones
Hardly a week goes by when I don’t see a new think-piece on the rise of the so-called religious ‘Nones’, our neighbours who claim no affiliation to any religious tradition. Their numbers have been steadily rising in North America: According to a study by Pew released in 2013, religious Nones increased in Canada from 4% … Continue reading I ♡ Nones
Matthew Root 