By Jana Bennett

• Our Pious Disbelief in “God-With-Us” by Jana Bennett (12/13/2016)
  ...nd Aram, a non-Jewish nation. Ahaz fears the bloodshed and destruction that war inevitably brings. We, today, can understand Ahaz’s fear. Surely we have all been in some kind of position like that where we have stood among enemies, where no help or hope seems to be found.<!--more--> Our own enemies are probably not political foes who threaten to take away our land. In our context, perhap...
• Ordinary Things, Extraordinary Vision by Jana Bennett (11/23/2016)
  ... image Isaiah gives us for imagining our future with God is anything but the reality of the world we know today. In Isaiah’s vision, nations come together, united in climbing the mountains of God. They don’t just come together in some half-hearted way, either - they stream together, all pressing headlong in a rush toward God. They all recognize God. Our modern relativistic attempts at keeping ...
• Belief, Bodies, and Freedom by Jana Bennett (3/30/2016)
  ...rected in our memory.” Others have suggested that there’s no need – not really – to believe in the risen Lord. What matters is that we follow his message, more or less to love each other. I think our particular difficulties with the resurrection, as 21st century people, stem from the ways we understand our bodies. We think we can do things to our bodies – real, powerful things, and that we are ...
• The Unwelcome Word by Jana Bennett (1/28/2016)
  ...his scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” It has been fulfilled NOW. And NOW. And NOW. We discover that the year of Jubilee, the year of the Lord’s favor, isn’t only the Jubilee as we have it from Jewish law, where debts are forgiven and an unjust society is reordered, ever forty-nine years. When Jesus proclaims the word has been fulfilled, the Jubilee becomes now, and every moment. Th...
• Wasting Time in the Banquet Hall by Jana Bennett (8/12/2015)
  ...o much of the story to say that in this beautifully illustrated book set in medieval Italy, readers discover that yes, someone as silly-looking as a clown - even someone who "only" juggles for a living - is a follower of Christ. I mention my kids' book because I think this week's lectionary readings are about discovering what it takes to become a wise fool, a clown, for Christ. This week's firs...