The More of Pentecost

Pentecost is the culmination of the Christian season of Easter, but was originally a Jewish festival … which is why the Jewish followers of Jesus were gathered together in Jerusalem for its religious observance. Still recovering from their grief at the crucifixion, joy at the resurrection, and confusion at Jesus’s brief stay with them prior to ‘the ascension’, … the disciples got ‘the more’ of Pentecost surely! And it was much more than just a babble of words … [To read more, click on title]

Wrestling with God

Jesus tells a parable about a bothersome widow who seeks justice against her oppressor.   Day after day, the judge refuses to help her.  But she persists, tirelessly bothering the judge until he’s sick of her very presence: “I will grant her justice,” he says to himself, “so that she may not wear me out.  (In the Greek, “so that she won’t give me a black eye”!) … [To read more, click on title]

Innocent

Imagine being jailed for something you didn’t do. Not just an objective, academic ‘that’s-a-bit-unfair’ injustice, but the stomach-churning anguish of not being believed, of knowing you’re innocent but, with no advocate and no redress, you sit in your cell with little to think about but the irrational injustice of it all.

Or worse, on death row.