Jesus Loved Picnics

Jesus must have loved picnics. The Gospels recount two humongous picnics hosted by Rabbi Jesus. The Gospels call them feedings instead of picnics, but that’s just semantics. Both picnics and feedings happen outside on the ground despite challenging weather and insects. Mark’s descriptions of the two picnics are long winded (6:30–44 and 8:1–10). The accounts … Read more

Church Ladies

I subscribe to the Monastic Way, a monthly newsletter published by Sister Joan Chittister, a Benedictine nun from Erie, Pennsylvania. Sister Joan is progressive, a writes prolifically, supports prison ministries, and travels around the world making the good news good and women relevant. The July 2018 issue of the Monastic Way was about Mary of … Read more

Overreaching

Sometimes when we read parables in the New Testament, we overreach by looking too deeply for something that is not there or making complex allegories (stories with hidden meanings) out of simple tales. I’ll use the parable of the laborers in the vineyard (Matthew 20:1-16) as an example. It starts with the words “For the … Read more

Jesus the Handyman

The thrust of my ministry since the late 1980s has figuring out who the historical Jesus was. This is not easy because the New Testament mostly records the writers’ biases, not historical facts. Consequently, I’m constantly looking for information about what life was like back in Jesus’s time so I can place him into that … Read more