Dan's Marinations

Ask folks what comes to mind when they think of Revelation (not Revelations by the way) and what will they say?  Perhaps the Anti-Christ, perhaps the four horsemen of the apocalypse; or perhaps they will think of the seemingly incessant turmoil and violence in the Middle East.  Images of destruction, "Hell on Earth," dragons and devils, angels and demons may come to mind.  It may be the end of the book with its glorious image of the New Jerusalem coming down to earth.  Far too commonly folks read Revelation about the same way they regard Tarot Cards or a daily horoscope.  It becomes simply a book about telling the future.  I argue that reducing the book to simply a means to tell the future effectively renders impotent one of the most powerful parts of scripture. Yes, Revelation does refer to Christ's return, but it is also much more than that.  The trouble with Revelation is that too often we listen to what others say about the book rather than actually reading it our

Beginning this week I'll be starting a series of sermons on the names of God that we can find in scripture.  As we read our English translations (NRSV, NIV, ESV, etc.) this may seem to be sort of a short endeavor.  After all there's just "God" and "Lord" that our Bibles use isn't there.  The reality is quite different, though.  The ancient Hebrews actually used many different names or titles in referring to God. To understand this consider culture and language.  The language of the Old Testament is Ancient Hebrew.  Hebrew is at once earthy, bizarre, picturesque, and straightforward.  This is the language God used for his first communication with humanity.  Hebrew is indeed bizarre in that it is read from right to left and that the individual letters look like they may have come from Mars.  The language is also earthy and picturesque.  A couple of examples illustrate this.  The main Hebrew word for "glory" in the Old Testament is kabod .  This