Puddleglum's Pensees

Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.   The good news on first reading, and after a few more readings, sounds rather grim doesn’t it? Certainly not a gospel lesson I would have chosen for my last one with you. But it is the Gospel we have been given and it is, I believe, GOOD news. I’d like to tell you why.   Jesus, you will recall, has sent the disciples out to carry on his ministry, and 12 are named especially. Jesus is redoing the mission of Israel, first by sending the 12 to Israel in the hope that Israel may indeed become a blessing for the world. But he warns them of opposition: I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Jesus says. There will be family dissension, there will be public violence. Only those who persevere to the end will be saved.    If, in fact, Jesus is re-doing the mission of Israel for Israel’s sake, why then is there opposition? That i...

What a wonderful story for Father’s Day! Well, I think it is anyway. I think, in fact, it’s a comedy. Not a comedy in the sense that the movies of Adam Sandler are comedies—that probably tells you more about my Netflix habits that I should be comfortable with. I mean, the Abraham story is not a comedy in the sense of prat falls, corny jokes and canned laughter.   It is rather a comedy in the classic sense of the word—it is a story about something that is too good to be true. A story about something absurd and wonderful and impossible that comes to pass. And it is a story not in the make believe world of once upon a time, but one that that takes place in our world. By the oaks of Mamre .   How is it a comedy? We need to work a little to get there. Here's the backstory. This is not the first time that God has spoken to Abraham. That takes place decades earlier, some five chapters before in Genesis chapter 12. There, God commands Abram (for that was his na...