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If you are a woman, you have likely heard the story of Martha and Mary. Martha is hurried and busy in the kitchen at the big party she threw for Jesus. But Mary sits down at Jesus's feet, anointing him with ointment. Martha complains to Jesus, saying that he should tell Mary to get busy and help her sister. But Jesus says Mary chose the better way. This is usually told to shame busy body women. But this is totally wrong. Instead, it is an invitation into a man's world that they had been excluded from. This story is coupled with Judas rebuking the extravagant use of ointment. And Jesus says that the poor will always be with us, which is also poorly used to remove the shame of not supporting the poor. The common theme is misusing this story to uphold patriarchy and male dominance. They couldn't be more wrong. I describe the audacity of Mary and Martha, and the corruption of Judas in context. text.

#marthaandmary #lazarus #judas #passion #Jesus #edmonds #edmondspres #pcusa

The word for "sat" is παρακαθεσθεῖσα which is a reflexive word, which in context literally means "one who sat herself down alongside at Jesus's feet." To sit at his feet is to be his disciple.

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Have you been puzzled by the dissonance of Palm Sunday? How can people seem so happy at the start of the worst week of Jesus's life? Why do we think Hosanna is offering praise? What made the people throw their cloaks down and wave branches? These are pivotal questions. Looking at the volatile political and cultural dynamics at play, you can see the astonishing insight and bravery of Jesus. Whether you believe his actions were divinely guided or not, I get a glimpse how this amazing story shows us the Jesus that I love. From the triumphal entry to Jesus weeping over Jerusalem to Jesus's audacious cleansing to the temple, Jesus went to the wall, through the gate, and put himself in the hands of the authorities leading to his crucifixion and resurrection. I describe what it looked like for Jesus to ride from the Mount of Olives to the eastern wall of Jerusalem. I describe the political dynamics and the astonishing bravery of Jesus in Luke 19:28-39.

#palmsunday #jesus #jerusalem #cleansingthetemple #edmonds #edmondspres #pcusa

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Correction! Jezreel Valley goes from Haifa to the Jordan River. Kidron Valley is next to Jerusalem. I am sorry for the error!

No word is more polarizing than "woke" but the people who get really angry about usually can't define it. To them, it just means anything liberal they don't like. Instead, the term arose in the black community in the mid-20th century and it simply means becoming aware of the systemic injustice in American society. It was used against Jim Crow and racism and the institutions that kept and still keep people of color down. I argue that Amos is the most woke book of the Hebrew Bible because it is a shock to the self-righteous. Old Testament Survey classes are usually the weeder classes in seminaries, in a similar way that Calculus is in universities. Why? I explore how many Christians when faced with a deeper understanding of the Old Testament encounter a crisis of faith. Amos is one of those books for Americans and all western societies. Amos has long been used as a critique by civil rights advocates and liberation theologians. If you don't see yourself in Amos, you just aren't paying attention.

Reference: Gören Eidevall "Amos: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary (The Anchor Yale Bible Commentaries)

#oldtestament #amos #woke #capitalism #liberationtheology #selfrighteousness #edmonds #edmondspres #pcusa

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Pastors always walk a fine line when it comes to politics and current events. Healthy congregations have people with a variety of political persuasions. Being a true pastor means you should never abuse the privilege of power to push partisan political positions. But we are also compelled to preach the gospel, so we should not be complicit or quiet in the face of political cruelty and injustice nor in the face of anything-goes immorality. So how can you be faithful and non-partisan at the same time? There are two ways to look at it. One is to understand Romans 13:1-7 in context and how it is used. The other is to know about the political backdrop for the book of Jeremiah. I also mention Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Karl Barth and the Confession Church when they were facing the massive takeover of fascism in Germany.

I mention the historian with the tag of @oh_mellnawww on TikTok and Instagram. She has a very important perspective.

#fascism #pastor #confessingchurch #politics #christiannationalism #edmonds #edmondspres #pcusa

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What does Newton and Darwin have to do with God? A whole lot. Newton represents the height and triumph of determinism, the idea that all things have a cause and effect. If you know all the inputs and processes of a system, you can determine every outcome. Calvin's writings underpinned this by saying that God has absolute control of the entire universe, which Newton used to generalize from earth to the cosmos. Newton was a very religious man. Darwin who was also religious, created a major fissure in determinism by describing how random events and natural selection are the basis for evolution. The rise of quantum mechanics and chaos in the following century obliterated any scientific foundation for determinism. For the believer, the argument isn't so much whether God is in control, but whether God plays by God's own rules. I touch on the leap of imagination that Newton and Darwin had to make to have the astounding insights they developed. I also mention Einstein's lifelong struggle with determinism. And how religious people have such a hard time giving up the control that determinism gives them.

#newton #darwin #einstein #determinism #faith #predestination #freewill #edmonds #edmondspres #pcusa

Eph 1:11 In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance, having been destined according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will,

Jer 10:23
I know, O Lord, that the way of humans is not in their control,
that mortals as they walk cannot direct their steps.

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What is Biblical Marriage? That is a hard question to answer because there are many biblical marriages. There is Israelite marriage in the time of the Patriarchs, there is Judean marriage in the Second Temple period, there is New Testament Jewish marriage, there is New Testament gentile marriage, there is sacramental marriage as the Catholic Church defines it and there is Protestant marriage. Then all of this is applied to modern American notions of marriage and the nuclear family. I describe what the true purpose of marriage was in the Old Testament and New Testament. I also describe why no modern couple would want to have a biblical marriage. Then I show how modern Christians project our ideas of marriage on the two most commonly quoted passages in the New Testament and how they do and do not apply to us.

For this I refer to David A. de Silva's "Honor, Patronage, Kinship and Purity" and Carolyn Osiek's "Early Christian Families in Context"

#marriage #biblicalmarriage #onemanonewoman #edmonds #edmondspres #pcusa

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I welcome special guest Gabe Gordon who is the author of his recent book "The Fundamentals of a Recovering Fundamentalist." We went to seminary together and he was my TA for a historical theology class. Now he is a grad student at Marquette University specializing in historical theology. His interests are early Greek and Syriac speaking Christianity and post-supersessionist Jewish Christian theology. He is a very deep thinker and I've always admired his thoughtful approach to theology. Gabe will give us a little autobiography that is central to his book. I ask Gabe about two major topics in his book. The idea that fundamentalism is just as dependent on modernism as liberal theology and what that means for us today. And how today's fundamentalists rely heavily on Gnosticism, much more than they realize. Finally, we talk about some of the paths that young people like him can take out of fundamentalism to develop a more sustainable and heartfelt faith.

Gabriel Gordon, "The Fundamentals of a Recovering Fundamentalist" available at https://wipfandstock.com/9781666785685/the-fundamentals-of-a-recovering-fundamentalist/ and at https://a.co/d/fvidbCO

#fundamentalism #exvangelical #postcolonialism #judaism #gnosticism #postmodernism #edmonds #edmondspres #pcusa

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"Born Again Christian" is a label you wear proudly or are very leery about it. This dichotomy is intentional and says a lot about how you see scripture and salvation. Most people think of evangelical Christians being Born Again. So why do some Christians, like myself, bristle at the label. It all has to do with a pun, that you only really see in Greek. It gets to the playfulness of the language in the Gospel of John. It also shows us that the way Nicodemus saw salvation isn't so much different than modern Christians do. I then talk about the most famous verse in the New Testament, John 3:16. You see it on billboards and t-shirts. It seems to have magical powers of evangelism and conversion. But again, it is a little different in Greek and not nearly as conditional sounding. You only have to look one verse later to see why.

#bornagain #john316 #evangelical #salvation #edmonds #edmondspres #pcusa