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“The peasantry during and after the Revolution of 1910 – 1920 fell from the frying pan of dictatorship into a revolutionary fire caused by internecine feuds between the caudillos engaged in bloody warfare. Whether it was the cause of secular Revolution against a corrupt dictator, in defense of Catholicism against an atheist state, or toContinue reading “Film Travels 2020: Mexico”

The author of Matthew goes to great lengths in his Gospel to reposition Jesus within the Jewish narrative, the story of the Israelites, and in my previous reflections I have noted how Matthew emphasizes, expounds on and elevates the Old Testament references in order to retell the story of Genesis and Exodus and essentially createContinue reading “The Gospel of Matthew Part 6: The Last Shall Be First. Love the Greatest Law, and The Liberating Picture of the Righteous Sufferer.”

“Whenever religion becomes a depressing affair of burdens and prohibitions, it ceases to be true religion.”― William Barclay (The Gospel of Matthew) While the author of the Gospel of Matthew remains anonymous, tradition has long positioned it to be the words of Matthew, one of the Disciples of Christ and an Apostle (also known as Levi).Continue reading “The Gospel of Matthew Part 5: The Call to be Imitators of the Gospel for the Sake of the World”

As I reflected on in my last post, the writer of Matthew’s Gospel is intently interested in matters of the “Kingdom”. In Herod and Jesus we find a picture of two competing Kingdoms with two different types of Kings. with Matthew playing with these perceptions of power and weakness. The power that we find inContinue reading “The Gospel of Matthew Part 4: A Kingdom of Justice, A Brood of Vipers, and Turning Weakness into Power”

In my previous reflection, I talked about how the author of Matthew establishes his Gospel in line with the Genesis-Exodus story. He does this to raise up Jesus as the New Exodus, not only in a retelling of the Exodus story, but a re-imagining of the story in light of Christ ushering in the new,Continue reading “The Gospel of Matthew Part 3: Herod, John and Jesus, and a Picture of Two Kingdoms in Contest”

In part one I talked about how the Genealogy sets up Matthews larger concern for establishing Jesus and the new Kingdom as a Kingdom for the least, the oppressed and the marginalized, which is where he understands Jesus found him. The way he weaves the line is unconventional to say the least, and yet alsoContinue reading “The Gospel of Matthew Part 2: The Birth, The Temptation and The New Exodus Story”

Personal confession time: It has been a while since I’ve spent some time with this Gospel. I’ve always struggled to get into Matthew. It might be the language. It might be the context. If this time through uncovered something, it is that Matthew feels and seems more than a little bit feisty, particularly when itContinue reading “The Gospel of Matthew Part 1: Genealogies, Lineages, and Numbers”

I had three interconnected experiences yesterday that had me mulling over the idea of “compassion” as an exercise of faith. One was a podcast, the other a post from a friend, and the final one a movie: THE PODCASTThis was an interview and discussion with Paul Gilbert, an evolutionary psychologist whom founded what is nowContinue reading “Nostalgia for the Light and Finding Compassion”

Traditionally, the author of James has been contributed to James the Just, (the brother of Jesus) and the leader of the Jerusalem Church in the Book of Acts. Certainly, outside of the question of authorship, we can find in the letter of James an interacting with Paul’s ideas, most prominently his discussions of works andContinue reading “James: Faith, Works, Doubt and the Promise of God’s Liberating Movement”

The Book of Hebrews has been notorious in the field of Biblical scholarship for being difficult to pin down in modern language. Entrenched in the language of it’s ancient Jewish culture, the anonymity of both it’s author and it’s audience ends up being both a blessing and a curse (if I can borrow the BiblicalContinue reading “The Letter to the Hebrews: Finding Rest in Faith, Confidence in Suffering, and Witness in our Heritage”