Becca’s Bible Guide – Reading the Bible

So you've selected a Bible that is right for you (that's a different post), and you're ready to start reading! But where to even begin? When I first read the Bible, I started with chapter one of Genesis and read through. This took me a little under a year and I learned a lot, but…

That Old Time Religion Ain’t Conservative Enough

So my friends lists on Facebook, and on my blogroll, and even on my television (good Lord, do I love Rachel Maddow) are all talking about the same thing this week. The Conservative Bible Project. Like Rachel Maddow, like many of my friends when we first emailed this around, I was convinced this had to…

The Coolest Thing Since the Printing Press

I’m surprised that this didn’t make more of a splash when it came out a month or so ago. The Codex Sinaiticus project is updating and making available online the images and translations of a codex—a 1600-year-old bible, one of the oldest and most complete versions of the Christian Bible ever found. Why do I…

Eureka!

Replying to my sister's comment from my previous post, and still thinking about it, I got the nugget. I think I figured out not only my sermon, but how I can live with this text (and I didn't even have to hunt down a copy of Leonard Sweet's out-of-print book, although I still have a…

Lunatic, Liar, or Lamb?

At a recent Theological Diversity Team meeting, I thought we made a little head way in terms of finding commanility in scritural interpretation. The the more conservative interpretation in the room centered around the argument that the Bible is the ultimate truth and we should believe it because it's a reliable source when it says…

Book Reviw: Lamb

Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal, by Christopher Moore. Why everyone in the world should read this book: This book accomplishes something that not many authors/filmmakers attempt: an actual characterization of Jesus as, you know, a *character.* This was one of my top complaints about "The Passion" (and that's saying something, because…

Take a Stab at This (or, why I didn’t preach Luke 16)

I was too timid to tackle Luke 16 this Sunday. I spoke instead about another lectionary text, Jeremiah 8:18-9:1, wherein God laments over the coming destruction of Jerusalem (Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then have my people not been restored?). I did not talk about any administration, past…