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From Christianity Today-
You’ve probably heard
someone say at some point “Don’t be such a Pharisee.” Typically these
words are uttered when someone is being overly scrupulous in “rule
keeping” in the Christian life. If there’s one type of person in the New
Testament that you don’t want to be compared to, surely it’s the
Pharisees. Though one could consider the question of the Pharisees from a variety of perspectives, let’s look at how Jesus responds to the Pharisees in the Gospel of Matthew.
The Pharisees frequently oppose Jesus in the Gospels. Jesus is often
critiqued by the Pharisees, and he in turn reproaches them for their
errant ways. He strongly warns his disciples not to follow their
teaching. But what exactly was the Pharisees’ problem? Was it that they
were too concerned with following God’s law? Or was it something else?
More here-
https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2018/august-web-only/pharisees-how-to-avoid-law-gospel-theology.html
From Mockingbird-
For several years now, people have been saying to me, “Sarah, you’ve got to read the Rev. Fleming Rutledge.” And for several years now I’ve politely nodded and thought to myself, “Sure, I’ll add him to the list of ordained dudes whose books I need to read.”
That was, until last year, when I heard about Fleming Rutledge’s latest book, The Crucifixion: Understanding the Death of Jesus Christ. I googled this Fleming character and much to my surprise, this photo appeared:
The beautiful hair, the earrings that can only be described as “earbobs,” and that scarf draped with the dignity of a woman who radiates, “Come at me world, I’m here to read you.” I remember gasping aloud and saying with total excitement, “WHOLE UP. HOW COME NONE OF YOU FOOLS TOLD ME FLEMING IS A LADY?!”More here-
http://www.mbird.com/2017/05/the-rev-mrs-fleming-rutledge-is-not-ashamed-of-the-gospel/
From Tom Ehrich-
I got home from a church event on Sunday evening, in time to watch the season three finale of “Downton Abbey” on PBS, but I stuck to my guns about catching up on previous episodes first.
But on Monday morning, The New York Times had two articles about the finale and I couldn’t stop myself from reading them.
So now I know that two key characters get killed off — because the actors playing them wanted to move on from the show. Does that mean watching the older season three episodes is pointless? Not at all. As any Christian can tell you, knowing how the story ends doesn’t take away its meaning or mystery. If anything, you become even more alert to character development.
Killing off characters can work wonders for a television series, but it rarely works for the actors who overestimated what they uniquely brought to the program.
Ask any executive, pastor or educator about moving on and then bombing in the next job: their success wasn’t about them in the first place. It was circumstance, luck or an “alignment of the planets,” if you will, that existed only for an instant.
Maybe this reality explains why Christianity has been such a flawed enterprise. Think about it. Virtually nothing of what Jesus intended has come to pass. His followers aren’t one, they aren’t even nice. Humankind has neither learned to love God or neighbor, to make peace, or to proclaim the good news of salvation in any way deeper than institutional arrogance. Nor have we learned to be bold in justice, magnanimous in healing, generous with wealth, or welcoming of outcasts.
More here-
http://www.salisburypost.com/article/20130222/SP03/130229838/1010/SP03/gospel-lessons-from-x2018-downton-abbey-x2019
From Christianity Today-
