Author: David Ellis

Don: First, some additional commentary on our discussion last week, where we noted that the one element common to all three “Parables of the Lost” (Coin, Sheep, and [Prodigal] Son) is that, though individually different in kind, the Lost are all equally, actively sought. This display of grace and effort to save the Lost describes…

Don: Last week we discussed whether a faith community is essential to the individual’s relationship with god. At the end of the meeting, the question was asked: Did Jesus’ statement that “Wherever two or three are gathered together in my name” imply that only Christians can have a relationship with god? Scripture gives hundreds of…

Don: What is the relationship between the faith community and the individual, in terms of the individual’s spiritual need and growth? To put it another way: How important is it for an individual to be part of a faith community in order to have a deep spiritual life? It is not commonly thought that one…

Don:  Matthew 18 begins with the question: Who will be greatest in the kingdom of heaven? This is really a question about how authority should be determined and managed in a community. Jesus replied that childlike innocence—a desire not to seek authority—is a key element in producing a strongly bonded community. Mutual deference is a…

Matthew 18:21-35 Then Peter came and said to Him, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven. “For this reason the kingdom of heaven may be…

Don: On one level, the parable of the prodigal son is about the relationship between god and man, about god’s graciousness, and about the open arms of god. Without undermining this face-value meaning of the story, at a deeper level we may see it as a story about Wo/man’s relationship with herself and himself. It…

Don: I was stimulated by the blog comment on the Emperor’s New Clothes and its application to the story in Matthew 22 of the wedding guest who refuses to don the wedding garment. It suggests that what is called for is a return to a grace-dependent nakedness that was part of the condition of Man…

Don: Scripture contains a number of illustrations of the concept of there being some kind of inner light within every human being. For example: 1 John 3:24: …The one who keeps God’s commands lives in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by…

Don: Throughout history, well-meaning Christians have lived in fear of committing, or of having committed, the unpardonable sin. The notion that one must never be guilty of this sin was a common sermon topic when I was a boy. But given the ubiquity and all-encompassing nature of grace that we have deduced in our recent…