Tag: Bible

Bible, Christianity, Faith, hope, Jesus, Love, reconciliation, Selfishness, Spirituality, Teachings, Theology2 Comments

Love Your Neighbor–part 3

Gary Furr

In our previous time together, I examined the mystery of how love of God, neighbor, and even ourselves, is so askew. And this lives out so differently in men and women, the well-located and the dislocated, the rich and the poor, but there are common roots to it all. We concluded with this observation of the matter–When we love our neighbor this way, forgetting ourselves in love for another, we connect with the powerful love that is at the heart of all things.  It is life-giving.  It is also impossible unless God helps us to love.  And yet we know, … Continue reading Love Your Neighbor–part 3

Bible, Christianity, humanity, Jesus, Love, Selfishness, spirituality, Teachings, Theology and Life

Love One Another– part 2

Gary Furr

So today, let’s pick up where we were last time. In the New Testament, there are two injunctions. As I mentioned previously, we are to love God and love our neighbor. Romans 13.8 states, let no debt remain outstanding except the outstanding debt to love one another for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law. But what about self-love? We’ve become bogged down in modern life by being sure that we love ourselves enough and have subtly reversed the emphasis of this commandment. Many people struggle with finding a sense of purpose and worth. The modern secular profession of counseling … Continue reading Love One Another– part 2

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Love Your Neighbor–part 1

Gary Furr

The phrase “love your neighbor as yourself,” which appears in nearly all religions as what we often call the “Golden Rule,” is the rule of reciprocity—love as you wish to be loved, treat others as you wish to be treated. Now this seems almost imbecilically obvious except that we are living through a ghastly moment of stupidity in our public life. “Strength” is exalted across the world by rightward mobs in reactionary anxiety of cultural and societal erosion. These changes, in my view, are mostly our own creations due to endless speeding up of life, isolation by our technologies of … Continue reading Love Your Neighbor–part 1

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The Mystery of Daddy Shucks: A Memorial Day Story

Gary Furr

Rev. Tommy Simons is the Pastor of Third Baptist Church in St. Louis, and a friend of more than thirty-two years. This week, his pastor’s email came with this reflection about Memorial Day. I asked if I could share it and he graciously agreed. Here it is: The Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., was created to honor the U.S. armed forces members who served and died in the Vietnam War (1955–1975).  The winning design was Maya Lin, 21-year-old Yale architecture student. A V-shaped black granite wall, sunken into the earth, inscribed with over 58,000 names in chronological order—connecting the … Continue reading The Mystery of Daddy Shucks: A Memorial Day Story

Art, Bible, Christianity, Faith, Holy Week, Hope, Jesus, Pilgrimage, Spirituality, spirituality, Suffering, Theology, Uncategorized

Pilgrims on the Rooftop

Gary Furr

In 2010, I was part of a group of ministers who went to Israel together on pilgrimage.  We were all Protestants—Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians, UCC, and Episcopalians, along with one Mennonite for good measure. We were used to going on trips as church leaders, but this was different. We went as pilgrims. Pilgrimage is not a familiar term for Protestants and surely not Baptists. A friend of mine once said our spirituality is “extraverted, programmatic, and evangelistic.” Being silent, mystical contemplation and words like “pilgrimage” smacked of Catholicism, and when I was growing up that was negative, even if I didn’t … Continue reading Pilgrims on the Rooftop