Category Archives: Advent

Hector lives

Posted on November 28, 2020 by hessd

There are so many things to like about Steven Spielberg, but among those I cherish his one-liner about The Terminal.  A reporter asked him whether the part of Viktor Navorski (played by Tom Hanks) was “a Christ story.”  I didn’t … Continue reading →

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The First 10 Years: Part III

Posted on May 27, 2020 by hessd

Tomorrow I am going to celebrate the tenth anniversary of this blog.  I’ve been working up to it by reflecting back over the last ten years.  This is the third and last of those essays. It doesn’t seem all that … Continue reading →

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All seated on the ground

Posted on December 23, 2019 by hessd

As I have been reading texts more carefully (the reasons for which need not detain us at the moment) I have found all kinds of little fragments of language that you can read right through or listen right through and … Continue reading →

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Paying attention to Christmas

Posted on December 5, 2019 by hessd

In her New York Times editorial, Tish Warren cites an “old saying” I never heard before: “Hunger is the best condiment.”  I’d like to think about it a little, using the same context in which she uses it, which is … Continue reading →

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Journalism Rears Its Ugly Head

Posted on August 22, 2019 by hessd

Nothing against journalists. The “journalism” I have in mind is the perverse practice of reading the Bible as if you were reading a newspaper account. I think the Bible should be read as if it were a sermon with really … Continue reading →

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An impromptu Advent homily

Posted on December 10, 2018 by hessd

It is the practice of the senior center where I live to have a Vespers service on Sunday afternoons. It’s a very sensible thing to do because some residents who have spent their whole lives “going to church” really can’t … Continue reading →

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Matthew pairs Jesus and Moses

Posted on December 23, 2017 by hessd

Matthew spends a lot of time in his gospel presenting Jesus as the new Moses. It has not been lost on scholars, for instance, that in Matthew, Jesus’s first sustained teaching was on a mountain. Moses went up the the … Continue reading →

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Wise Men. Not too smart though.

Posted on December 11, 2017 by hessd

I am going to write today about the geopolitical savvy of the Wise Men.[1] They were academics who studied the stars and when they saw one that portended a new king of the Jews, they knew immediately where to go. … Continue reading →

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“This isn’t told for sentiment”

Posted on December 4, 2016 by hessd

Every other year, I study Luke’s account of the birth of Jesus. [1] By happenstance (see footnote 1) the Luke years are the even numbered years, which means that I study Luke in the presidential years and in the midterm … Continue reading →

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Wheaton College: Conduct Unbecoming an Evangelical

Posted on December 30, 2015 by hessd

Wheaton College has recently disciplined a political science professor for saying something that embarrassed them. Since the handiest charge is that she has violated her doctrinal commitments, that is the charge they used, but that is not what she has … Continue reading →

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