Authors /
Stephen E. Fowl
Stephen Fowl is professor of theology at Loyola University Maryland in Baltimore. His latest book is Ephesians: A Commentary (Westminster John Knox).
Holy citizens
This Sunday is the Feast of Christ the King. All of the readings for this Sunday focus on kingship—David’s, God’s, Jesus’. Jesus’ views on kingship are revealed in his famous discussion with Pilate. Jesus makes it clear that his kingship is directed at testifying to the truth.
Jesus is a king with a specific mission: he has come into the world to testify to the truth.
Sunday, November 25, 2012: John 18:33-37
It is the Feast of Christ the King, the final Sunday of the church’s liturgical year. All of today’s passages reflect on kingships—those of David, God and Jesus....
Waiting in love, not anxiety
This Sunday’s texts from Daniel and Mark (and, perhaps, Hebrews) are quite apocalyptic in their outlook. This may lead most preachers to focus their attentions elsewhere—though post-election, many U.S. partisans may be feeling fairly apocalyptic themselves.
Sunday, November 18, 2012 (Daniel 12:1-3; Mark 13:1-8)
Apocalyptic visions generate fear. Fear needs its antidote: love.
Search and restore: Mark 9:38-50; James 5:13-20
Perhaps Jesus is too hopeful, too optimistic about these outsiders to suit our temperament.
Wisdom works: James 3:13-4:3, 7-8a; Mark 9:30-37
The crucified and resurrected Christ becomes the standard against which to measure all accounts of wisdom.
In the know: James 3:1-12; Mark 8:27-38
My wife and I have two sons, 12 and 14, and a standard-size refrigerator. Hence, we spend a lot of time at the grocery store. As I wait to pay for one day’s installment of food, I am invited to learn the full story about the semiprivate lives of numerous celebrities. If the number of these publications is anything to go by, our desire for insider knowledge is insatiable. We want to know all of the details and we want to know them now.
God's choice: James 2:1-17; Mark 7:24-37
Jesus seems to engage in just the sort of activity that James warns against.
The Divine Voice
Over the past several years Stephen Webb, professor of religion and philosophy at Indiana’s Wabash College, has...
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