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by Daniel Rentfro But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing a wedding robe, and he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding robe?’ And he was speechless. Watching Sunday’s service, Anne said that the parable of the wedding banquet always troubles her, and asked what I thought it meant. I was fairly sure I knew the conventional answer. Most scholars agree that the wedding clothes in the…
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by Daniel Rentfro The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament shows his handiwork. Psalm 19 only makes sense, I think, if we remember that the psalms are poems, meant to be recited, or even sung. Once we remember that, it makes perfect sense. Psalm 19 starts off talking about nature – specifically the sun, moon and stars – and how they “declare the glory of God.” Then, in verse 7, it abruptly shifts to talking about the law, which is “perfect and…
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by Daniel Rentfro Even after you saw it, you did not change your minds and believe him. It’s been said in recent years that the three hardest words to say are “I don’t know.” I am not fully persuaded, for a couple of reasons. First, this claim usually gets made on podcasts or talk shows, typically two popular forums for the North Atlantic Know It All Society. Second, I can think of any number of things that can be harder to say than “I don’t…
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‘At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall have your fill of bread; then you shall know that I am the Lord your God.’ Anne and I are in the Chicago area for the next two weeks, visiting, son, daughter, daughter in law, and grandson. Seldom has there been a more planned-out trip than this one, from departure times to overnight stays down even to which rest stops we would use and Starbucks we would visit along the way. And our car looked…
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by Daniel Rentfro So my heavenly Father will also do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart. This week’s gospel, especially the last sentence, must be among the most troubling in all of Scripture.  We tend to think of forgiveness as a virtue. It’s the kind of thing that decent people ought to do. As Laurie points out in her sermon, forgiveness is also thought to be good for us. It relieves us of resentment,…
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by Daniel Rentrfo Last week’s New Testament reading was from the 12th Chapter of Paul’s letter to the Romans. We saw how Paul, in the midst of a string of pearls of conventional wisdom, (“let love be genuine;” “hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good;” and so on), inserted this little bomb, more Machiavelli than Miss Manners: “If your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals on…
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by Daniel Rentfro “Do not be overcome with evil, but overcome evil with good.” It’s commonly said that, in English-speaking culture, the two largest sources of quotes, aphorisms, and phrases are the Bible and Shakespeare’s poems and plays. In Shakespeare, there is no greater concentration of maxims than in Polonius’s farewell to his son Laertes, in the first act of Hamlet. “The clothes make the man;” “Neither a borrower not a lender be;” “To thine own self be true;” these, and many others, packed into a…
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by Daniel Rentfro Then he sternly ordered the disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah. Today’s gospel reading, from Matthew, incorporates a common refrain from Mark’s Gospel: Jesus telling people not to talk about what they’ve seen or heard. In the very first chapter of Mark, for instance, Jesus cleanses a leper, then orders him not to tell anyone but to go present himself to the priests. The leper, of course, ignores him, and tells everyone that Jesus healed him. In the…
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by Daniel Rentfro For one believes with the heart and so is justified, and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved. ‑‑‑Romans 10:10 The word heart (or hearts) occurs in Paul’s letter to the Romans 16 times. What makes it so important to Paul? Mostly, we take Romans as a central demonstration of Paul’s conviction that Christians are saved by faith in Christ rather than faithful obedience to the law. This pretty clearly is behind the reference to “circumcision of the heart” in Romans 2:29, which is what…
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