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No Mediation Needed

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The Jerusalem temple was segmented into three spaces. There was the:  Porch:  Also known as the vestibule. This is where sacrifices and the preparation of those sacrifices took place. There, people would give their sacrifices to the priests who prepared them as burnt offerings to present to God inside the temple. We might imagine the porch as our narthex, but one where sacred BBQ’s took place! Holy Place/Sanctuary: This is the main room for religious ritual where priests, and only priest, presented to God their own prayers and sacrifices and the people’s prayers and sacrifices given to them in the narthex. Priests, and only priests, interceded for the people here with prayers, burnt offerings and did so twice a day. Holy of Holies: This is the most sacred space. This space is where God abides. Only the high priest can enter this holiest of spaces and only on one day. The high priest on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, enters the holy holies and presents burnt offerings for atone
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A Life (so far) in 9 Songs

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     1. I Walk the Line (Johnny Cash) Mr. Maurer was my music teacher in the first grade at John L. Edwards Elementary School in Hudson, New York. Being a really great teacher, he regularly introduced us to different genres of music by playing popular examples of those genres on vinyl. Though just 6 years-old, I remember some of the musical pieces he played. "How Much Is That Doggie In the Window" by Patti Page; "This Land Is Your Land" by Woody Guthrie; "Danse Macabre" by Saints-Saens; "Sixteen Tons" by Tennessee Ernie Ford; and this one, "I Walk the Line" by Johnny Cash. Most of the songs Mr. Maurer played made an impression. Johnny Cash's iconic tune, well, that tune mesmerized. Cash's classic represents the earliest formation of my musical tastes. Country music runs deep in my musical soul. I have my parents to thank for this. I grew up listening to Country radio as well as watching Hee-Haw and The Barbara Mandrell Song. The
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What Singing Hymns Together Teaches Us

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Why do we sing hymns? Have you ever asked yourself that question? Do we sing them just because that’s what we’ve always done? Is it just habit that makes us sing? Well, I’d like to suggest we sing hymns for deeper reasons than just because. Hymns matter more than we realize.  First, we sing hymns together. And I think we unconsciously know that its beneficial to our souls. It’s also beneficial to our physical and emotional well-being. Last year in the Washington Post, there was a story titled, “Singing is good for you. Singing with others may be even better.” That story begins with a choir created by the UK’s National Health System and the London Cancer Alliance. Why? For the purpose of research. The choir was made up of patients recently diagnosed with cancer. The project’s aim was to study the benefits of group singing on overall health. Here were the results: “A single choir session reduced stress hormones and increased levels of immune proteins in people affected by cancer. ​ The l
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Abraham & Sarah, Half-Sibling-Spouses? (Genesis 20)

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The Bible is not a 21 st century American novel. It is an ancient text dating back some 2,000 years. For it’s time, it was sometimes progressive. But often it merely reflected the human culture from which it was created. That said, the literariness of the text is rather remarkable. Genesis 20 is a great example. Up to now, we’ve been assuming the newly named Sarah and Abraham are a childless married couple that God chose to birth a nation. In Genesis 11, we’re given Abraham’s genealogy. Sarah is mentioned (as Sarai), but simply as the wife of Abraham who happens to be childless. She’s also mentioned as the daughter-in-law of Terah, Abraham’s father (11:31). In the next chapter, Genesis 12, we read the story of Abraham and Sarah entering Egypt where Abraham states Sarah is his sister, not his wife, to save his hide. He fears that because Sarah is so beautiful, desirous Egyptian men will get rid of him to take Sarah for themselves. Sarah declared as merely sister, a desirous Egypt
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Sodom & Gomorrah (Genesis 19)

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Instead of going into details myself about this oft-abused and misunderstood text, I'm shaing a succinct and clear look at the text by biblical scholar and influencer Dan McClellan. He perfectly summarizes my thoughts on the text. So why reinvent the wheel?
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Our Father and Our Brother and Our Son

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  Sometimes, a song lyric moves the theme for a Sunday meditation. This week is an example. I read the lectionary scriptures for this week, focusing per usual on the New Testament readings from Hebrews and Mark. The Hebrews passage references Jesus as our brother. Mark, while not explicitly referring to Jesus as father, describes him as a fatherly figure.   This picture that to us Jesus is both father and brother recalled a lyric from Michael Card’s 1986 song, “Forgiving Eyes.” The song is musical rendition of the Woman Caught in Adultery story from John 7. The song is written from the perspective of the woman. The first verse describes the woman being caught in the act and being brought in front of an ad hoc Jewish court. Rabbi Jesus happens to be there, and he’s asked his opinion. The moment Jesus begins speaking, the woman understands that there’s hope for her. The woman cries, My judge a man from Galilee In His eyes so gentle I could see A father and a brother and a son A father, a
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