Roman, Entry into Jerusalem, marble, late 4th century. The fool says in his heart, ‘There’s no God.’” (Psalm 14:1; cf Ps 53:1). Psalm 14 opens with these famous words. No one likes to be called a fool. But these words, as I read them, are neither an attack on a specific person nor a rebuttal of a …
When human rights fail us
Psalm 12:1-8 Australian navy personnel rescue asylum seekers from a sinking boat off Christmas Island in 2001. I have had the privilege of sitting with asylum seekers at Villawood Immigration Detention Centre in Sydney, and at the Curtin Immigration Detention Centre in remote north-western Australia, as the asylum seekers shared their stories of oppression, fear, …
How to face the reality of evil
Psalm 4:1-8 Individuals associated with the federal government have, in defiance of a court order and without a trial or any form of due process, deported hundreds of people from the territory of the United States to El Salvador, where they will be held indefinitely in a concentration camp.[1] That was American historian Timothy Snyder, …
Two ways to live
What is your experience of the Psalms in the Hebrew Bible? Take a moment to reflect on the following: Which psalms most readily come to mind? What memories do you associate with those psalms? What people and places do you think of when you hear a psalm? What Christian hymns and songs extend the reach …
Even greater things
John 11:21-27; 14:12 Teaching, training apprentices, rebuking religious leaders. Healings, exorcisms, turning water into wine, calming a storm, feeding a crowd with five loaves and two fish. And then the biggest of all: raising a widow’s son from death to life, and then raising Lazarus from the dead. Jesus was one of the most unusual, noteworthy …
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