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God, What's with All the Questions?
If you’ve been following my blog recently, you will know that I have just finished reading Brueggemann’s An Unsettling God: The Heart of the Hebrew Bible. In the book, one of his primary points is the Old Testament picture of God is as partner in dialogue in contrast to the picture of God within classical…
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Trying to Ask the Right Questions at Advent
After reading the Old Testament lectionary readings so far in the season of Advent, I realize how difficult it is to ask the right kinds of questions. For my entire life, I have lived within traditions that have treated prophecy primarily as prediction, at least at the popular level. The tendency is to think “Wow!…
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Additions to Daniel in Today's Liturgy
Today’s responsive reading involves part of the additions to Daniel considered canonical by Roman Catholics and some of the other more liturgically oriented traditions. That is very fine and well (at least in my opinion, but I’m Catholic). Yet here’s the footnote from the New American Bible: [24] 3,24-90: These verses are inspired additions to…
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John Collins on Daniel 7
Well, I had a wonderful time with Christo (my thesis supervisor) and Karyn (a peer at the University of Stellenbosch) after SBL. But, now back to the important business of blogging. Today’s Old Testament lectionary reading is from Daniel 7. Once I get past the narratives at the beginning of Daniel, I very much feel…
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You Break the Teeth of the Wicked
That is a phrase that is left out of the Responsorial Psalm for today. Psalm 3 consists of 8 verses in the Hebrew text. The response for today uses every verse in the text except for one. Why leave out one verse? Because it reads: Rise up, O LORD! Deliver me, O my God! For…
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This Psalmist Must Have Never Had Children
Today’s responsorial Psalm blew my mind, but not in some super spiritual way. Psalm 131 reads as follows: 1 O Lord, my heart is not lifted up, my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me. 2 But I have calmed and quieted…
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"Ephraim is my First-born"?
There is a second interesting point in Jeremiah 31.9b alone. Again, it reads “For I am a father to Israel, Ephraim is my first-born.” What’s so interesting about that? Well, it’s interesting because in the actual story line of the Old Testament Ephraim was not a first-born son. Joseph has two sons in Egypt, whom…
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God as Father in the Old Testament
So, still no daily Old Testament lectionary reading (except for feast days) until around mid-November. But, that’s okay for today because I remembered I was gone to a World Youth Day celebration this weekend. So, I didn’t say anything about this past Sunday’s lectionary reading. Lots of stuff going on here. The reading was from…
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Crying Abba – Inspired by Romans 8.15 (Part 3)
Update – For a note from an academic perspective from James McGrath see below. But, please enjoy the cute videos anyway. Today’s New Testament lectionary reading is from Romans 8 including Romans 8.15, which reads “For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received a spirit of…
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Crying Abba – Inspired by Romans 8.15 (Part 2)
Update – I am adding a note from an academic perspective from James McGrath “‘Abba’ is the ordinary Aramaic word for father in the absolute state, and not child-talk or “daddy” as some have at times wrongly claimed.” But, please enjoy the cute videos anyway. Today’s New Testament lectionary reading is from Romans 8 including…