by | Dec 15, 2023 | Uncategorized
Netanyahu’s allusion to the Amalekites sparks discussion of how to responsibly apply Scripture stories to current events like Israel’s war in Gaza.
When Benjamin Netanyahu announced the launch of ground operations in Gaza on October 28, weeks after Hamas terrorists murdered 1,200 civilians and abducted 240 hostages on October 7, he summoned the memory of an ancient foe.
“Remember what Amalek did to you,” the Israeli prime minister stated. “We remember and we fight.”
It was a reference his audience would understand.
In the Exodus narrative, the Amalekites attack the Hebrew people in the wilderness and are defeated in a dramatic conflict where Moses raises his arms over the battlefield. Later, in Deuteronomy 25:17–19, Moses exhorts the Israelites to “remember what the Amalekites did to you” and, after they have come into possession of the Promised Land, to “blot out the name of Amalek under heaven.” Finally, in 1 Samuel 15, God ordered King Saul to “totally destroy” the Amalekites, including women, children, and infants. Saul defeats the enemy, but is condemned for sparing their king and cattle.
Rabbinic commentary came to identify Amalek as a kind of paradigm for any enemy of the Jews that seeks their total destruction. Netanyahu had previously hinted the “new Amalek” could be a nuclear-armed Iran, and one of his advisors explained the word is used as a stand-in for “existential threat.” It has been invoked in reference to the Romans, the Nazis, and the Soviets.
Christians made the biblical comparison with Hamas even before Netanyahu, however, prompting discussion of responsible biblical interpretation in the midst of war.
Shortly after October 7, the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem (ICEJ) said the Hamas attack was “rooted in the demonic realm as a manifestation of the …
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by | Dec 15, 2023 | Uncategorized
Christians have to look beyond the typical Christmas carol lineup for music that captures the deeper themes of the Magnificat.
Without question, the most popular contemporary Christian song about the figure of Mary is “Mary, Did You Know?”
Mark Lowry and Buddy Greene’s 1991 hit has come to occupy a singular position in the Christmas music canon. It seems like almost every popular vocalist with a holiday album has covered the song: Carrie Underwood, CeeLo Green, Mary J. Blige, Rascal Flatts, Jessica Simpson, Kenny Rogers, Dolly Parton, Patti LaBelle.
The Advent ballad showcases a singer’s emotional and vocal range—from the quiet strains of the first verse to the climactic bridge that invites a passionately belted delivery. It has also been the subject of thoughtful criticism and silly send-ups in recent years.
Why is it that “Mary, Did You Know?” has become the musical avatar of Mary in popular imagination when musical settings of the words of her canticle (Luke 1:46–55), also known as the Magnificat, offer a glimpse of her inner life and courageous response to her singular, miraculous encounter with God?
Mary’s song begins in Luke 1:46–48, “My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant.” (Magnificat is the first word in the Latin translation, Magnificat anima mea Dominum, “my soul magnifies the Lord.”) The text reflects on God’s faithfulness, his scattering of the wicked and dethroning of the powerful.
“The Magnificat is all about power structures being upended,” said Amy Orr-Ewing, author of Mary’s Voice, a new book of Advent reflections. “The justice theme goes throughout the Magnificat.”
Mary’s experience and persona often serve to underscore …
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by | Dec 15, 2023 | Uncategorized
The looming new year can be anxiety-inducing—but God has all the mercy, grace, and rest we need.
The glitz and glamour of the Christmas season are here, but you and I both know there’s a ball waiting to drop at midnight on December 31 that has us more uncomfortable than we care to admit. And that discomfort is the very thing I want to ask you to face: the impending fear of the new year.
If only we could be sure that the new year contained, well, new things for us. New as in good, of course. New as in hopeful, optimistic, exciting. If that were how new years worked, we wouldn’t be feeling so uptight. But lurking behind the new of the new year are all its unknowns and the fears they foster in our hearts.
Questions hover like ornaments dangling from the tree boughs: What will the new year bring? Can I get on my feet financially? Will these health concerns resolve? Can I find some reconciliation for this broken relationship? Will this career opportunity I’ve been working for all these years finally come to fruition? Will I find love?
Yuletide carols with saccharine choruses can do only so much to keep these fears and questions tucked away. But what if we didn’t keep them tucked away? What if we tried three experiments this Advent and Christmas season?
I know what you’re thinking: Is Christmas really the time for experimentation?Don’t I have shopping to finish, gifts to wrap, parties to attend, and family to fight? You do, but wouldn’t you also like to enter the new year with less trembling hands and a more trusting heart?
Experiment 1: Pause
What would it look like for you to let some things go? Go with me here for a second. When Christmas comes around, none of our regular responsibilities end. We layer ribbons and bows on top of our already busy lives: more commitments, more consumption, …
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by | Dec 14, 2023 | Uncategorized
The book of Ruth’s narrative reminds us that God’s salvation is not simply accomplished through “heroic” men, but that women, too, play a vital role.
I grew up in Japan in a household where my mother was a follower of Jesus but my father was not a believer. My mother took my siblings and me to church each week and played a central role in my faith formation. Consequently, I recall her presence in most of my Christmas memories, such as attending Christmas Eve worship services, acting in Nativity plays, and sharing about Jesus and the “meaning” of Christmas with others. Within my family, my mother was the primary figure who modeled Christ, and she has played an indispensable role in fostering my faith.
Many Christians may resonate with my story, especially those who grew up in a family where the mother was the sole parent who followed Jesus. Indeed, a 2019 Barna study of Christian homes in the United States points to the prominent role of mothers in their children’s faith. Teens consistently identified mothers as the foremost figures who pray with them and talk with them about matters relating to the Bible and faith. “Over and over, this study speaks to the enduring impact of mothers—in conversation, companionship, discipline and, importantly, spiritual development,” researcher Alyce Youngblood concluded. For many believers, belief in Jesus would not have been a reality without the role and legacy of family matriarchs in their lives.
The Advent season provides an opportunity to meditate on Christ’s love, but it also gives us a chance to appreciate his maternal lineage, particularly of his great-ancestor Ruth. I propose that the story of Ruth serves as an Old Testament Advent story. For Christians, Advent carries a specific connotation of “the coming of Christ at the Incarnation.” But the term also broadly means “the …
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by | Dec 13, 2023 | Uncategorized
… for American Christians to take climate change seriously. At the COP28 climate summit, fellow Christians wait too.
The 28th annual meeting of the United Nations Climate Change Conference—commonly called COP28—is winding down in Dubai. I’ve been here with the Christian Climate Observers Program (CCOP), which brings 30 emerging leaders from around the world to bear witness to conference events. COP28 includes both intense climate action negotiations with officials from 200 countries and something like a world’s fair, with pavilions from almost every country as well as many different interest groups.
One group that is noticeably underrepresented is the American church. There’s a faith pavilion here for the first time, and I’ve seen presentations from Muslims, Jews, and many Christians from other parts of the world. But aside from Americans involved via CCOP, I’ve not seen anyone representing Christians in the US.
Perhaps that’s not surprising. Christians are less likely than other Americans to think climate change is a serious problem, and evangelicals have the least concern about the environment of any American religious group. With fellow climate skeptics, they’re apt to argue that there are “bigger problems in the world,” and anyway, “God is in control of the climate.”
Those rationales for inaction may sound realistic, practical, even biblical. But they miss deeper scriptural themes of love, justice, and the responsibility for creation that God has shared with humanity on this side of eternity—and the next.
It’s true that many people have more immediate problems than climate change, but once you grasp the scale of the risk here, it’s hard to imagine a more significant threat to so many people’s way of life and livelihood, …
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