Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing – Luke 23:34
This prayer concerns, among other things, our relationships with others. Sinners, brothers and sisters, religious leaders, and rulers.
Using the phrase “in the name of Jesus,” has become a Christian catchphrase that cannot be ignored in any prayer, declaration, decree, preaching, event, sermon, etc. For many years, it has been believed that this phrase has a certain mystical or powerful charge in the spiritual world, and its misuse can cause prayers to be ineffective, or simply ignored by God.
In this scenario, Jesus comes up with a very interesting and revolutionary message for his time. He intends to introduce the image of God as the Father among the Jews. Let us remember that when Jesus walked in First Century Palestine, the entire territory was under the rule of Rome, achieved through war and barbarism.
On the one hand, there is a group of believers who maintain that God indeed ordered each of the wars described in the biblical text, with all their barbarities, attacks, children dashed against rocks, etc. Most of those who defend this idea explain that God manifested himself in one way in the Hebrew Bible and in a different way in the New Testament, being the same God, but with different plans for each moment in history
Embracing my inner atheist, I notice some situations that I would like to consider: Although God is the same yesterday, today, and always, in the Hebrew Bible we read that God is too violent. This is manifested in all the wars in which God ordered the annihilation of entire towns without having mercy on anyone (by the way, there is not much difference between these texts and the current actions of some extremists, violent groups in the world, specially in the Middle East).
I see on television and social media the atrocious images of terrified people seeking refuge after having risked their lives crossing the sea aboard small paper boats. Behind them is death that awaits them with its jaws open once again. Ahead, they find fences erected by governments that exude fear of the different, ordering their lackeys to repel the avalanche of nobodies. And I can only remember Jesus of Nazareth…
Many words have been dedicated to understanding matters around prayer. Almost every current of Christianity has a different position on its power or its applicability. Many debates even arise in different media, leading to heated discussions about the relevance of praying in one way or another according to the biblical mandate or personal and community experiences.
In war there are no winners, we are all losers. Oppressed people are those who bring, from their midst, the war victims, the deaths, the tears, the hunger, the hopelessness, the pain. War has been narrated in inks of different colors,...
It is curious (to say the least) that, according to the gospels and in the context of the baptism of Jesus of Nazareth, the Divine manifests the Holy Spirit by flying like a dove. Having any animal symbol or metaphor available, God chooses that one.
This Mexican proverb by Ernesto Cardenal1 represents the relationship between the current situation on our planet Earth and some activists around the world who are advocating in favor of the preservation of the environment in the face of climate change issue and the organized movement to resist it. The beauty of the metaphor lies in the image of a seed, representing life, directly related to the dust, the ground, the soil, and the mother.
For a few decades now, many believers have been taught that we should not experience sadness, anger, suffering, anguish, etc. Everything from the cliché, ‘you are a victorious child of God, therefore, you must not live in defeat’.
If you cannot remember the 22 characteristics of a good husband or wife, the 10 things you have to do to overcome temptation, or the 4 types of love in Greek; it is time to turn back to Jesus.
Although it looks like current preaching revolves around obedience as an absolute and superlative value, the Bible seems to insist on narrating the opposite path. Almost the majority of biblical stories are marked by the rebellious tinge of disobedience to oppress systems by the protagonists and the peoples they represented in the midst of societies that obeyed their traditions and that sought to block the way to those silent voices that tried to tell their tales.
There are many cases in which a child, despite the principles they have received at home, decides not to embrace the Christian faith. This can bring great disappointment to parents, who carry a pain behind them that ultimately leads them to wonder, what did we do wrong?
Welcome to Trinity...
Where the invisible throw shadows,
the weak lead, the silent are heard,
and the pushed aside
are called into the center
where they are listened to,
lifted up and loved.
Whoever you are, you are welcome here!
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