Bil Aulenbach What do the Easter Bunny and resurrected Jesus have in common? The obvious answer is Easter. My answer is that there is no Easter Bunny nor dead Jesus un-deading. Some background: There are about twenty stories, or Gospels, about the life of Jesus. Only three of them, Matthew, Luke, and John, talk about a resurrected … Read more
The four Gospels tell eight different stories about Jesus healing blind folks. Are these eight different healings or just one healing told eight different times with different circumstances? My take is that none of the stories are true, but inside each story is a great truth. But first, a little background: We have a daughter … Read more
I promised I wouldn’t inundate my readers with all the negative news until I saw some rays of light and hope. For a couple of weeks, I thought I saw some positive news. One was from Anthony D. Romero, executive director of the ACLU, who said, “We are clear that President Trump is a danger … Read more
The New Testament has six stories in which Jesus feeds a crowd of people. I call them picnics. The Gospel refers to two of them as “bread and fish . . . for four thousand,” found in Mark 8:1–10 and Matthew 15:32–39. The other four mention “bread and fish . . . for five thousand,” … Read more
Can you walk on water like Jesus did? I give that question a no and yes answer. First, let’s review Jesus walking on water, found in Mark 6:47–51. When evening came, his disciples went down to the sea, got into a boat, and started across the sea to Capernaum. It was dark, Jesus wasn’t with … Read more
In my lifetime, I have served under ten different bishops. In the Episcopal Church, a bishop can have a great deal of power and authority. She or he is also the chief shepherd of the flock. I have admired and respected four of those bishops, primarily because they were more into being pastors than legal … Read more
I promised that I would not blog about all the negativity in our country and the world until I saw something optimistic. Fortunately, I am starting to see that ray of hope. Quietly, and sometimes noisily, people are planning ways to resist. Some are already demonstrating. First, however, here are some absolutes: We cannot cave … Read more
The airwaves and other media are filled with negativity that can leave one feeling hopeless and helpless. I have decided to buck that trend and write a positive and uplifting blog post. ***** Over the years, because we Gentiles read the Bible literally, we often miss the great truths within the stories. Miracle narratives are … Read more
Most of my readers know that I feel the institutional church has lost its way. It hangs on to a Jesus that doesn’t make much sense in the twenty-first century. During my sixty-eight years of ministry, I have become convinced that Jesus’s main message was to live agape, with unconditional love and total forgiveness of … Read more
Penny asks, Bil, could you give us a column about PeaceLoveJoyHopeKindness for the new year? I’m surrounded by bad news. Four people died in a fireworks blast, thirty more injured, many critical, and most were children. Where’s the Joy? Thank you, Penny, for the question. No one has ever asked me that before, but my … Read more