If you could go back in time and speak with a 1st-century Roman about crucifixion and how the empire used them, what would they say? They might say that "... By [the cross] barbarian nations are subdued, by it the scepters of kings have been secured …" Or, they might say that the cross, “"... grant[s] victory to the faithful over the enemy …" If they had said either of those things, they would be absolutely correct! The cross was an instrument of torture that the Romans used to keep subjected pe...
Sep 17, 2021•12 min•Ep. 61
One of the first type-scenes, or conventions, in scripture that we’re going to look at is Annunciations. “Annunciation” is a Latin word that essentially means, “announcement.” But, for the original biblical readers, what would they have expected when an announcement was made to someone from a messenger of God? What would they have expected the message to be? To whom and for what purpose would they have expected the message to be delivered? And, do we get “announcements” from God today? The Botto...
Sep 03, 2021•21 min•Ep. 60
We all know that the Bible was originally written in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek, and, if we want to understand the Bible, we either need to learn the original languages or find a translation we understand. But, far too often, we think of translation and understanding in a much too narrow way. We limit “translation” work to translating the actual words. What we don’t think about is translating context. Surprisingly, this context includes reoccurring scenes that become a pattern. The original bibl...
Aug 27, 2021•11 min•Ep. 59
Aug 20, 2021•17 min•Ep. 58
When is a story not just a story? When is bread much more than water, yeast, and salt? When is the command to “feed” someone more than a command to give someone actual food? When you’re dealing with the Bible, that’s when! The Bottom Line: Sometimes we have to look past the miracles and signs to see what scripture really getting at, to see how it’s feeding us with the bread of life.
Aug 13, 2021•17 min•Ep. 57
In today’s podcast, we continue our exploration of the Law and its relationship to Christians. However, this week we get a twist. Though the early Jewish-Christians in the Book of Acts don’t advocate for circumcision, they do apply some legal restrictions on Gentile-Christians. Why would they do that? What’s going on? The Bottom Line: the Law serves a greater purpose to guide us on the Way that leads to life.
Aug 06, 2021•17 min•Ep. 56
This week, we continue our exploration of the Law and its relationship to us as Christians. But, before we go further, we should pause and define what we mean by the Law. Are we referring to the Law that’s given to Moses in Exodus? Or, do we mean the whole thing: the Five Books of Moses? Or, perhaps, something else? Once we’ve decided that, we can turn our attention to how the Law was used by the early Christians in the Acts of the Apostles to see what light that might shed on the issue. The Bot...
Jul 30, 2021•18 min•Ep. 55
Last week we looked at how the Old Testament is a mosaic in which Jesus can found. We learned that we can encounter Christ through the text of the Hebrew Bible. But, does the reverse happen? Do we see the Old Testament in the New Testament? If so, how? The Bottom Line: the New Testament isn’t just a continuation of the Old Testament story, it actually “sums” up the Old Testament in way that allows us to understand Christ in a much deeper way.
Jul 23, 2021•17 min•Ep. 54
Perhaps one of the most confusing parts of the Bible is understanding the relationship between the New Testament and the Old Testament. And, in turn, understanding our relationship as “New Testament people” to the Old Testament. Typically, we see ourselves as no longer being bound by the laws found within the Old Testament. But, in this upcoming Gospel reading, Jesus says that the law will not pass away ... not one letter, not one stroke? How are we to understand this? What did Jesus mean? The B...
Jul 16, 2021•23 min•Ep. 53
One function of scripture is to tear down our idols, our premeditated perception of God or those things we submit to in place fo God. This frees us so that we can worship the true God. Scripture does this in various ways. The Old Testament, for example, proclaims an unseen God, compared to the gods who exist as visible idols. This breaks our attachment to the gods we create in our minds and the ones we submit to in place of the Almighty. It also proclaims a God who willingly destroys his own tem...
Jul 09, 2021•18 min•Ep. 52
Do you remember being a teenager? Do you remember ignoring your parents when you were a teen? You were probably thinking, “Ugh, why do I have to listen to my parents? They don’t know anything. Besides, they can’t control me and my life!” If you’re the parent of a teenager now, you also know what I’m talking about. But, did you know, this “teenage” mindset is exactly the sort of mindset we should have as Christians. The Bottomline: We’re called to ignore the powers of this world because true powe...
Jun 25, 2021•15 min•Ep. 51
We all know that the Christian feast of Pentecost is the celebration of the gift of the Holy Spirit to the Apostles. This story is told in the New Testament book of Acts. But, did you know that there’s a Pentecost celebrated in the Old Testament as well? The original celebration was an agricultural feast. Later, it came to be a celebration of the giving of the Law. So, if we see the gift of the Holy Spirit as a gift of the spiritual law, then the New Testament celebration of Pentecost seems to b...
Jun 18, 2021•23 min•Ep. 50
Have you ever said something that you wish you could take back? I bet the moment you said it—right away—you knew you shouldn’t have. You could see the shock, hurt, and pain of your words on faces of your loved ones. Perhaps, you started apologizing in the hopes that you could, somehow, swallow your words as if they had never left your lips. But, it was too late. Your friendship, your reputation, was broken. If only there was a reset button. The Bottom Line: Our fallen human nature is like those ...
Jun 11, 2021•14 min•Ep. 49
If you read church news or online blogs, it’s easy to get disillusioned: there’s so much bad news. Combine this with a bad experience with Christians or a church and it’s no wonder that over 50% of Americans no longer affiliate with a Christian denomination. After all, the church seems to have proven itself to be full of hypocrisy and self-aggrandizing. But, did you know that the criticism leveled against the modern church were first leveled against us by the Bible? The readings from these past ...
May 28, 2021•11 min•Ep. 48
As I thought about the theme of one of the Easter Sundays, the Myrrhbearing Women, I wondered: what’s the deeper symbolic meaning that the first witnesses of the resurrection were female? Then, the answer came to me through the movie Shrek.
May 21, 2021•14 min•Ep. 47
This upcoming Sunday is the Sunday of Joseph the Arimathea and the Myrrh-Bearing Woman. Although the story of the women finding Jesus’s tomb empty is told by several of the evangelists, I want to narrow in on John’s telling of the story. It’s only in John’s Gospel that Mary mistakes Jesus for a gardener. And, it’s only in John’s Gospel that Jesus tells Mary not to “touch him” because he has not yet ascended (past tense) to his Father because he is in the process of ascending (present tense). But...
May 14, 2021•21 min•Ep. 46
There’s an old saying: knowledge is power. Many of us live by this proverb. We go to college—or send our children to college—so that we can acquire the knowledge we need to get good jobs and live happy lives. While I think this is a good thing—a very good thing—it also had a negative side affect. When we view knowledge as a means of getting ahead, then knowledge becomes a commodity that can be monetized: we have knowledge that someone else doesn’t have and, if they want to benefit from this know...
May 07, 2021•20 min•Ep. 45
In anticipation of Passover this Sunday, when we will celebrate the rising of the Anointed One from dead, here is the Passover homily read at every Orthodox Church around the world in the early hours of the morning. Blessed Resurrection to you all!
Apr 30, 2021•5 min•Ep. 43
(James 5:13-20) Are any among you suffering? They should pray. Are any cheerful? They should sing songs of praise. Are any among you sick? They should call for the elders of the church and have them pray over them, anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord. The prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise them up; and anyone who has committed sins will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The prayer of ...
Apr 23, 2021•22 min•Ep. 44
(James 5:7-12) Be patient, therefore, beloved, until the coming of the Lord. The farmer waits for the precious crop from the earth, being patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains. You also must be patient. Strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near. Beloved, do not grumble against one another, so that you may not be judged. See, the Judge is standing at the doors! As an example of suffering and patience, beloved, take the prophets who spoke in the name of th...
Apr 16, 2021•17 min•Ep. 42
(James 5:1-6) Come now, you rich people, weep and wail for the miseries that are coming to you. Your riches have rotted, and your clothes are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have rusted, and their rust will be evidence against you, and it will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure for the last days. Listen! The wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. You have liv...
Apr 09, 2021•28 min•Ep. 41
(James 4:11-17) Do not speak evil against one another, brothers and sisters. Whoever speaks evil against another or judges another, speaks evil against the law and judges the law; but if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. There is one lawgiver and judge who is able to save and to destroy. So who, then, are you to judge your neighbor? Boasting about Tomorrow Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a town and spend a year there, doing busine...
Apr 02, 2021•22 min•Ep. 40
(James 4:1-10) Those conflicts and disputes among you, where do they come from? Do they not come from your cravings that are at war within you? You want something and do not have it; so you commit murder. And you covet something and cannot obtain it; so you engage in disputes and conflicts. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, in order to spend what you get on your pleasures. Adulterers! Do you not know that friendship with the world is en...
Mar 26, 2021•26 min•Ep. 39
(James 3:13-18) Who is wise and understanding among you? Show by your good life that your works are done with gentleness born of wisdom. But if you have bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not be boastful and false to the truth. Such wisdom does not come down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, devilish. For where there is envy and selfish ambition, there will also be disorder and wickedness of every kind. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, will...
Mar 19, 2021•23 min•Ep. 38
(James 3:1-12) Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers and sisters, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. For all of us make many mistakes. Anyone who makes no mistakes in speaking is perfect, able to keep the whole body in check with a bridle. If we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we guide their whole bodies. Or look at ships: though they are so large that it takes strong winds to drive them, yet they are guided by a very sma...
Mar 12, 2021•22 min•Ep. 37
James 2:18-26 But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I by my works will show you my faith. You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder. Do you want to be shown, you senseless person, that faith apart from works is barren? Was not our ancestor Abraham justified by works when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was brought to completion ...
Mar 05, 2021•26 min•Ep. 36
(James 2:8-13) "Now, if you fulfill what, according to scripture, is a royal law—“You shall love your neighbor as yourself”—you are doing well; But if you are respecters of persons you are committing a sin, being convicted by the Law as transgressors. For whoever keeps the whole Law, yet falters in one thing, has become answerable for everything. For he who has said, “Do not commit adultery” also said, “Do not commit murder.” Now, if you do not commit adultery yet do commit murder, you have beco...
Feb 26, 2021•19 min•Ep. 35
(James 1:27-2:7) Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world. My brothers and sisters, do you with your acts of favoritism really believe in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ? For if a person with gold rings and in fine clothes comes into your assembly, and if a poor person in dirty clothes also comes in, and if you take notice of the one wearing the fine clothes and say, “Have a se...
Feb 19, 2021•21 min•Ep. 34
(James 1:17-26) Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. In fulfillment of his own purpose he gave us birth by the word of truth, so that we would become a kind of first fruits of his creatures. You must understand this, my beloved: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger; for your anger does not produce God’s righteousness. Therefore rid yourselves o...
Feb 12, 2021•20 min•Ep. 33
James 1:12-16 “Blessed is anyone who endures temptation. Such a one has stood the test and will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him. No one, when tempted, should say, “I am being tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil and he himself tempts no one. But one is tempted by one’s own desire, being lured and enticed by it; then, when that desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and that sin, when it is fully grown, gives birth to death. Do not be...
Feb 05, 2021•19 min•Ep. 32
