A number of news articles I have read recently refer to studies of the declining mental health of people here in the United States and elsewhere as we slowly emerge from the grip of the pandemic.  One report from the Centers for Disease Control says that as recently as February, 2021, over 40% of adult Americans reported symptoms of anxiety or depression.  This same study, like a number of others I consult, mentions also that the hardest hit among us are our young people age 18-29.  A society's spiritual problems concentrate and become most evident among our young.  Now that is something to worry about. 

These reports prompt me to ask, "How are you doing?" How are you doing?  Honest evaluation, like confession (which this sort of evaluation is), is good for the soul.  

I'm asking a serious question and (perhaps) pleading with us, then, to take stock of our answers to two other related questions, because our honest answers have direct...

Hebrews 5:12-13 admonishes its audience for their immaturity: "You need milk, not solid food; for everyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is unskilled in the word of righteousness."  The truth of this statement stings, but also aims us toward the goal: "Solid food is for the mature."  Being grown up, that's the goal.  And the mature, the text continues, are those "whose faculties have been trained by practice to distinguish good from evil."  Grown-up Christians can distinguish.  They can tell the difference.  They discern.  

This growth comes through practice.  "Trained by practice."  Think about every word of that phrase. 

So many of our life skills come through focused, purposeful repetition.  Training by practice.  Pick any skill.  There are no shortcuts that allow for us to dispense with repetitive practice.  The accomplished piano player never gets over drilling on the scale.  The serious...

In one of the books known by Protestants as part of the Apocrypha and as part of the biblical canon by Catholics and Orthodox, you can find a book called the Wisdom of Solomon.  The tenth chapter portrays Wisdom's engagement with, watching over, and guiding of, seven leading Old Testament figures: Adam, Abel (Cain's murdered brother), Noah, Abraham, Jacob (Israel), Joseph, and Moses.  The text does not name these figures, but if you know their stories, you can recognize them quickly.  

The interesting thing about them is how God works providentially through their lives and the circumstances of their times, to accomplish God's purposes.  That is a hard thing to say about poor Abel, who makes a cameo appearance in Genesis 4 before dying.  The Lord "had regard for Abel and his offering," which provoked in Cain a terrible jealousy.  All we know of Abel is that he was a keeper of sheep and that he brought a sacrifice from the first fruits of the new...

To be  completely honest, I have been struggling for a long time with awareness of the gap between conventional discipleship beliefs and practices and how the Bible characterizes true discipleship.  "If you remain in my word," Jesus says, "then you are truly disciples of mine."  "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father," (Matthew 7:21).  We might very well tense up reading these verses.  How are we to take them?

It helps, I think, to start with exploring the nature of learning, since discipleship and learning refer to the same experience.  To understand how learning happens pushes us further back to the need for an adequate understanding of our human nature.  Learning always involves our taking the form of our environment.  I could illustrate this truth countless ways, but, instead, I'll ask you to imagine how, though you certainly are a moral agent with some...

Often in our thinking about spiritual growth, we tend to stay fixed on our personal, individual relationships with God. Because of the shaping of perspective we have received from an individualistic western culture, it is more difficult to imagine (1) God having a relationship with a community, but in fact, much of the Bible assumes this very point. When God speaks, he speaks most often to the people as a whole.  It means that (2) the community is a something together that we are not merely as a collection of individuals who happen to share the same interests. 

In Exodus 19:5-6, we find the foundation text: "Now therefore, if you obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession out of all the peoples.  Indeed, the whole earth is mine, but you shall be more me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation."  There is much to ponder in these short verses, but right now let's train attention on how God's people are a something together.  You...

One of the major challenges in church life over the years has been keeping clear the proper roles of laity and clergy. You may have seen the church sign that says something like: "John/Jane Q. Smith, Pastor; ministers, every member." Something to that effect. It's the right thing to say, but let's face it, it is an empty platitude most of the time.

What if we took the saying seriously? What, in truth, does it mean? How do lay people, busy as they are with jobs, family responsibilities and a host of other demands, also serve as ministers? These basic questions need repeated engagement. We will circle around to them often, because, for all of us (clergy included) to grow to maturity in Christ, the people of God - the laity - need to know the significance of their ministries in taking up their crosses and following Jesus.  Read and re-read Ephesians 4:11-13.  

You may have heard the phrase, "priesthood of all believers," which comes from the Protestant Reformation. In...

Some of us older folk remember how the King James version reads in the story of Jesus healing the blind man outside Bethsaida (Mark 8:22-26).  Johnny Cash's interpretation is worth hearing.  (Make sure to listen to the very end.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0QuMoqWyR0

We find another odd Gospel story that offers the opportunity to practice Bible reading in line with the previous post.  My goal is to encourage you to gain awareness of how you operate while you're studying the Bible.  Pay attention to where your mind is drawn and what thoughts emerge as you study the details of the passage.  Learn to ask active questions.  (And forgive the "teacherly" tone I'm taking.)

As we did in the last post, we encounter strange features in this account of the blind man at Bethsaida.  Jesus takes this man who was brought to him for healing outside the town "and when he had put saliva on his eyes and laid his hands on him, he asked him, 'Can you see...

(This blog is a follow-up to the previous one about study bibles.)

There are at least two strategies we can use when we read the Bible.  We can read it devotionally, as we  should and as many people do.  We can also read the Bible for understanding the content: the narratives, the commands, the situations, that we find there.  Not nearly as many people read the Bible with the second strategy.  We need to increase that number.  To encourage more people to read the Bible for understanding, let's distinguish what is happening with us when we use the two different strategies.  

Devotional Bible Reading

 When we read the Bible devotionally, we normally read, at most, a handful of verses and often with a devotional guide or booklet of some kind.  I grew up with The Upper Room, which continues to provide sustenance for millions of people around the world.  Since I'm a Luddite at heart, I prefer the little paperback booklet that you can...

A member of the Sunday School class I teach recently suggested that I do a Spiritual Maturity Project blog on study Bibles.  Here are some I know from personal use:

The New Oxford Annotated Bible.  (The name refers to the publisher.)  It describes itself as an ecumenical study Bible, which I like.  The latest edition is the 5th edition (not the "wouldn't you like to fly in my beautiful balloon" 5th Edition), which I do not know firsthand (This revision is very recent [2018], so I'll be looking into purchasing).   If you look at one of the opening pages, you'll see the list of contributors, which I also like.  You can look up their pedigrees and learn something about them, if you wish.  More importantly, in a study Bible, you're getting a number of viewpoints by various scholars, rather than the single viewpoint of one commentator.  Of course, a big group of scholars can (and do) share particular biases, so a study Bible of this sort may...

Living the Christian life well calls for recognizing that nothing, literally nothing, falls outside the scope of God's interest or governance.  We have so much practice thinking otherwise that we barely notice.  And the issue is about lived experience, not so much about specific activities.  I'll try to explain.

It is easy to assume that this point applies only to a small category of people, maybe pastors or monks or nuns.  Normal people have to get up and go to work at "secular" jobs and manage business affairs and live in the rough-and-tumble of regular life.  Deep, deep in modern consciousness is this split between "religious" or "spiritual" and "secular" or "this world." 

The Bible emphasizes that Christians are supposed to live in the real world.  Christian witness happens in the real world.  God made this world.  This world matters to God. The economy, politics, everything about the world of everyday affairs matters to...