Tom Robbins on Religion, God, & The Spiritual Life

Tom Robbins is the kind of author who people often say you either love or hate. All things considered, that is probably the best kind of author to be, as it reflects that level of truth telling which always inspires radically opposing emotions in others. Robbins is also the kind of author that we at The Living Hour would identify as an excellent example of the SBNR Progressive Christian, even though he would undoubtedly not describe himself in such terms. Regardless, Robbins displays the kind of attitude, wisdom, and joie de vivre that we admire.

The following are selected quotes from Tom Robbins covering the subject of God, religion, and the art of living:

**”A sense of humor…is superior to any religion so far devised.”

**”We waste time looking for the perfect lover, instead of creating the perfect love.”

**”If by the quarter of the twentieth century godliness wasn’t next to something more interesting than cleanliness, it might be time to reevaluate our notions of godliness.”

**”What difference does it make if the Gospel is mostly a lie? It’s an engrossing story and the words of its hero are excellent words to live by, even today.”

**”If you believe in peace, act peacefully; if you believe in love, acting lovingly; if you believe every which way, then act every which way, that’s perfectly valid – but don’t go out trying to sell your beliefs to the system. You end up contradicting what you profess to believe in, and you set a bum example. If you want to change the world, change yourself.”

**”Curiosity, especially intellectual inquisitiveness, is what separates the truly alive from those who are merely going through the motions.”

**”All depression has its roots in self-pity, and all self-pity is rooted in people taking themselves too seriously.”

**”Anyone who maintains absolute standards of good and evil is dangerous. As dangerous as a maniac with a loaded revolver.”

**”Solace? That’s why God made fermented beverages and the blues.”

**”I believe in nothing, everything is sacred. I believe in everything, nothing is sacred.”

What might Tom Robbins say if he were a Zen teacher? Click on Zen to find out!

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Gain fresh insight into the Lord’s Prayer. Read our free online book The Lord’s Prayer for Daily Life. The prayer’s hidden teachings will enrich and inspire you. Click the following link to begin reading the Living Hour book now: The Lord’s Prayer.

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Who Goes to Hell & The Long Arc of The Moral Universe

President Barack Obama has many times hit the refrain that “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice”. Obama has attributed the quote to Martin Luther King, who invoked the long arc of the moral universe in relationship to African-Americans’ struggles for equal rights.

Martin Luther King though did not coin this phrase about the moral universe. He was quoting from the passionate Unitarian Minister, and 19th century progressive Christian, Theodore Parker, who once said:

“I do not pretend to understand the moral universe, the arc is a long one, my eye reaches but little ways. I can calculate the curve and complete the figure by the experience of sight; I can divine it by conscience. But from what I see, I am sure it bends toward justice.”

Theodore Parker’s keen sense of the moral universe and its long arc toward justice extended not only to his views of life here on earth, but also to his progressive Christian perceptions of heaven and hell. In one of his most memorable sermons on Christian morality and immortality, Parker says:

“If it were true that one human soul was immortal and yet was to be eternally damned, getting only more clotted with crime and deeper bit by agony as the ages went slowly by, then Immortality were a curse, not to that man only, but to all Mankind” for no amount of happiness, merited or underserved, could ever atone or make up for the horrid wrong done to that one miserable man.

I say the thought of one such man would fill even Heaven with misery, and the best man of men would scorn the joys of everlasting bliss, would spurn all heaven and say, “Give me my brother’s place” for me there is no Heaven while he is there!

Now it has been popularly taught that not one man alone but the vast majority of all Mankind are thus to be condemned; immortal, only to be everlastingly wretched. This is the popular doctrine now in this land. It has been taught in the Christian churches these sixteen centuries and more, taught in the name of Christ!

Such an immortality would be a curse to man, to every man; as much so to the “saved” as to the “lost,” for who would willingly stay in Heaven, and on such terms? Surely not Jesus, He who wept with weeping men!

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Gain fresh insight into the Lord’s Prayer. Read our free online book The Lord’s Prayer for Daily Life. The prayer’s hidden teachings will enrich and inspire you. Click the following link to begin reading the Living Hour book now: The Lord’s Prayer.

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If You Meet Jesus On The Road, Kill Him

A famous old piece of Zen wisdom says: “If you meet Buddha on the road, kill him.” There are a couple of reasons why we are called to take Buddha out. The most commonly cited reason is that the prophet in the road is not really Buddha at all, but a figment of our imaginations–a psychological projection of the person we want Buddha to be. To approach the real Buddha we have to eliminate (kill) these projections.

The other reason for killing Buddha in the road is that by doing so we drop our last crutch and begin walking our spiritual path with full freedom and independence. In other words, we kill Buddha in the road to attain Buddha-hood ourselves. By killing Buddha we honor Buddha and ironically give him life.

This teaching actually finds great resonance in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. In the Gospel narratives, the disciples insist on seeing Jesus of Nazareth only through the prism of their own psychological projections, expecting him to assume the crown of an earthly king,¹ all the while refusing to truly honor Jesus by accepting the kingdom of heaven within, where Christ reigns eternally.

So, today, let the Progressive Christian be the Zen Christian: If you meet Jesus on the road, kill him.

Where you want this killin’ done? God said, “Out on Highway 61.”
- Bob Dylan

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Gain fresh insight into the Lord’s Prayer. Read our free online book The Lord’s Prayer for Daily Life. The prayer’s hidden teachings will enrich and inspire you. Click the following link to begin reading the Living Hour book now: The Lord’s Prayer.

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1. On the following day great numbers of people who had come to the festival, hearing that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem, took palm-branches, And went out to meet him, shouting as they went: “God save Him! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord: the King of Israel!” John 12:12-13 [↩]

Ethan Allen on God, Reason, Prayer, & Religion

In this final installment of our special series on the Founding Fathers and their thoughts on God, Religion, & the Divine, we move to farmer, politician, and guerilla revolutionary leader Ethan Allen, who perhaps is best known for leading the Green Mountain Boys (and other fighters) in their raid and capture Fort Ticonderoga, a strategic victory which severely hampered communication between the northern and southern units of the British army.

Like Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin, Ethan Allen might be best described as a Progressive Christian Deist who believed reason must take a paramount place in religious activity. The following passage is taken from Section IV of Ethan Allen’s book, Reason: The Only Oracle of Man (1784), and deals with the subject of prayer. In synch with the philosophy of prayer that guides our free book The Living Hour: The Lord’s Prayer for Daily, Allen writes:

Whoever has a just sense of the absolute perfection of God, and of their own imperfection, and natural subjection to his providence, cannot but from thence infer the impropriety of praying or supplicating to God, for this, that, or the other thing; or of remonstrating against his providence: inasmuch, as “known to God are all our wants;” and as we know, that we ourselves are inadequate judges of what would be best for us, all things considered.

To pray for any thing, which we can obtain by the due application of our natural powers, and neglect the means of procuring it, is impertinence and laziness in the abstract; and to pray for that which God in the course of his providence, has put out of our power to obtain, is only murmuring against God, and finding fault with his providence, or acting the inconsiderate part of a child; for example, to pray for more wisdom, understanding, grace or faith; for a more robust constitution, handsomer figure, or more of a gigantic size, would be the same as tolling God, that we are dissatisfied with our inferiority in the order of being; that neither our souls nor bodies suit us; that he has been too sparing of his beneficence; that we want more wisdom, and organs better fitted for show, agility and superiority.

But we ought to consider, that “we cannot add one Cubit to our stature,” or alter the construction of our organic frame; and that our mental talents are finite; and that in a vast variety of proportions and disproportions, as our Heavenly Father in his order of nature, and scale of being saw fit; who has nevertheless for the encouragement of intelligent nature ordained, that it shall be capable of improvement, and consequently of enlargement; therefore, “whosoever lacketh wisdom,” instead of “asking it of God,” let him improve what he has, that he may enlarge the original stock; this is all the possible way of gaining in wisdom and knowledge, a competency of which will regulate our faith. But it is too common for great faith and little knowledge to unite in the same person; such persons are beyond the reach of argument and their faith immovable, though it cannot remove mountains.

The only way to procure food, raiment, or the necessaries or conveniences of life, is by natural means; we do not get them by wishing or praying for, but by actual exertion; and the only way to obtain virtue or morality is to practice and habituate ourselves to it, and not to pray to God for it: he has naturally furnished us with talents or faculties suitable for the exercise and enjoyment of religion, and it is our business to improve them aright, or we must suffer the consequences of it. We should conform ourselves to reason, the path of mortal rectitude, and in so doing, we cannot fail of recommending ourselves to God, and to our own consciences. This is all the religion which reason knows or can ever approve of.

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Gain fresh insight into the Lord’s Prayer. Read our free online book The Lord’s Prayer for Daily Life. The prayer’s hidden teachings will enrich and inspire you. Click the following link to begin reading the Living Hour book now: The Lord’s Prayer.

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James Madison on Religion & Teachers of Christianity

Today in our faith and religion series of The Founding Fathers, we take a look at James Madison, the 4th President of the United States, who is widely recognized as being the “Father of the Constitution.” Madison was a strong advocate of limited federal power, and a vigorous defender of the separation between Church and State. An Episcopalian, Madison always took a reasonable and measured approach to the subject of religion. Whether or not he might be described as a “deist” is open to debate, and, in the end, an inconsequential point. His bona fides as a Progressive Christian are unimpeachable.

The following passage is from James Madison’s “Memorial and Remonstrance” (1785), where he forcefully and systematically argues his opposition to “A Bill establishing a provision for Teachers of the Christian Religion,” which was introduced to Virginia’s General Assembly. A few months later the General Assembly passed Thomas Jefferson’s “The Virginia Act for Establishing Religious Freedom.”

[This bill should be opposed] Because experience has shown us that instead of maintaining the purity and efficacy of Religion, ecclesiastical establishments have had a contrary operation. For almost fifteen centuries the legal establishment of Christianity has been on trial. What have been its fruits? More or less in all places we find pride and indolence among the clergy; ignorance and servility in the laity; and (in both) superstition, bigotry, and persecution.

Ask the “Teachers of Christianity” in what period did their religion appear with greatest luster, and those of every group point to the ages prior to its incorporation with civil policy. But if you propose a restoration of this primitive state, in which Christianity’s teachers depended on the voluntary rewards of their flocks, many of them predict Christianity’s downfall. So, on which side should their testimony most be believed: when it is for or when it is against their personal interests?¹

To read the original “Memorial and Remonstrance” in its entirety, go to James Madison’s Opposition.

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Read the next article in our Founding Fathers series: George Washington & Spiritual Tyranny.

Gain fresh insight into the Lord’s Prayer. Read our free online book The Lord’s Prayer for Daily Life. The prayer’s hidden teachings will enrich and inspire you. Click the following link to begin reading the Living Hour book now: The Lord’s Prayer.

1. The above passage from James Madison was lightly edited to make it easier to read by the modern reader. [↩]

John Adams, Knowledge & The Character of Literary Men

One of the most influential Founding Fathers of the United States was John Adams, our second president and the revolutionary delegate who was instrumental in persuading Congress to adopt the United States’ Declaration of Independence in 1776.

A Unitarian Progressive Christian, Adams was well familiar with the abuses to which Christianity was subject, yet he kept an abiding faith in religion’s positive role of uniting and morally guiding the American people. This does not mean though that Adams felt government should in any way be involved in religion. Like Jefferson, Franklin, and others, Adams was well aware how such involvement could quickly corrupt the Christian ideals of charity, virtue, and selflessness.

In the following passage, taken from a letter to Virginia State senator John Taylor, John Adams talks about the dubious character of “literary men” in America and the petty vices, jealousy, and hatred that exist in universities and other learned institutions, a cutting observation that many Americans today will humorously (or lamentably) admit still rings true.

A few words more concerning the characters of literary men. What sorts of men have worked the presses in the United States for the last thirty years? In Germany, in England, in France, in Holland, the presses, even the newspapers, have been under the direction of learned men. How has it been in America? How many presses, how many newspapers, have been directed by vagabonds, fugitives from a bailiff, a pillory, or a hangman’s noose in Europe?

You know it is one of the sublimest and profoundest discoveries of the eighteenth century that knowledge is corruption; that arts, sciences, and taste have deformed the beauty and destroyed the felicity of human nature, which appears only in perfection in the savage state–the children of nature. Yet I fear not the propagation and dissemination of knowledge. The conditions of humanity will be improved and ameliorated by its expansion and diffusion in every direction. May every human being (man, woman, and child) be as well informed as possible! After all, did you ever see a rose without a briar, a convenience without an inconvenience, a good without an evil, in this mingled world? Knowledge is applied to bad purposes as well as to good ones.

There is no necessary connection between knowledge and virtue. Simple intelligence has no association with morality. What connection is there between the mechanism of a clock or watch and the feeling of moral good and evil, right or wrong? You may read the history of all the universities, academies, monasteries of the world, and see whether learning extinguishes human passions or corrects human vices. You will find in them as many parties and factions, as much jealousy and envy, hatred and malice, revenge and intrigue, as you will in any legislative assembly or executive council, the most ignorant city or village.¹

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Read the next article in our series on the Founding Fathers: James Madison on Religion & Teachers of Christianity.

Gain fresh insight into the Lord’s Prayer. Read our free online book The Lord’s Prayer for Daily Life. The prayer’s hidden teachings will enrich and inspire you. Click the following link to begin reading the Living Hour book now: The Lord’s Prayer.

1. The above passage by John Adams was edited for length and to make it easier to be read by the modern reader. [↩]

Patrick Henry & The Great Christian Divide

Any series on the Founding Fathers and Christianity would be remiss without addressing the topic of slavery. For us today it seems amazing that such enlightened men, who demanded liberty and freedom for themselves, couldn’t see the hypocrisy in keeping slaves. But many of the Founding Fathers did clearly see the evil of the slave trade and bore no illusions as to themselves being masters over another race.

For some perspective on this matter, we turn to Patrick Henry, the former governor of Virginia, who is famously remembered for his “Give me Liberty, or give me Death!” speech, which was a call to arms against the oppressive British government. The following passage from Patrick Henry is taken from a letter to a friend who had sent him a book condemning the slave trade. What is especially poignant in this commentary (for the modern reader) is Henry’s observation of the great divide that exists between what Christians know is wrong in their heads, and what they actually reject as wrong in real life. It is great chasm that still exists today, even among Progressive Christians.

I take this opportunity to acknowledge the receipt of Anthony Benezet’s book against the slave trade. I thank you for it. It is not a little surprising that the professors of Christianity, whose chief excellence consists in softening the human heart, and in cherishing and improving its finer feelings, should encourage a practice so totally repugnant to the first impressions of right and wrong.

What adds to the wonder is that this abominable practice has been introduced in the most enlightened ages. Times that seem to have pretensions to boast of high improvements in the arts and sciences, and refined morality have brought into general use, and guarded by many laws, a species of violence and tyranny, which our more rude and barbarous, but more honest ancestors detested.

Is it not amazing that at a time when the rights of humanity are defined and understood with precision in a country, above all others, fond of liberty, that in such an age and in such a country, we find men professing a religion the most humane, mild, gentle and generous, adopting a principle as repugnant to humanity, as it is inconsistent with the bible, and destructive to liberty? Every thinking, honest person rejects slavery in theory, yet how few in reject it in real life from conscientious motives!¹

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Read the next article in our series on the Founding Fathers: Thomas Jefferson on Jesus, Religion, & Reason.

Gain fresh insight into the Lord’s Prayer. Read our free online book The Lord’s Prayer for Daily Life. The prayer’s hidden teachings will enrich and inspire you. Click the following link to begin reading the Living Hour book now: The Lord’s Prayer.

1. The above passage from Patrick Henry was edited lightly to make it easier to read by the modern reader. [↩]

Thomas Paine on Christianity & True Greatness

This week in our special series on the Founding Fathers, we begin with the revolutionary Thomas Paine, a statesman who often was ostracized for his SBNR (Spiritual But Not Religious) views on Christianity, God, and religion. Like a true Progressive Christian, Paine tried to encourage forward progress in all aspects of the individual life and the life of the nation. His work The Rights of Man remains a testament to his enlightened perspective on the nature of public rights versus those of a government, while his famous pamphlet Common Sense reminds us still today, to our chagrin, how uncommon “common sense” truly is.

The following passage comes from “To The People of England” included in The Writings of Thomas Paine, Volume I. Here we find Paine discussing one of his favorite topics, national honor, from the simple perspective of common decency. As is so often the case with the writings of the Founding Fathers, Paine’s commentary remains as relevant today as when it was written>

There is an idea that exists in the world known as national honor, and this, falsely understood, is often times the cause of war. In a Christian and philosophical sense, mankind seems to have stood still at individual civilization, and to retain as nations all the original rudeness of nature. Peace by treaty is only a cessation of violence for a reformation of sentiment. It is a substitute for a principle that is wanting and ever will be wanting till the idea of national honor be rightly understood. As individuals we profess ourselves Christians, but as nations we are heathens, Romans, and what not.

I remember the late admiral Saunders declaring in the House of Commons, and that in the time of peace, “That the city of Madrid laid to ashes was not a sufficient atonement for the Spaniards taking off the rudder of an English sloop of war.” I do not ask whether this is Christianity or morality, I ask whether it is decency? Whether it is proper language for a nation to use? In private life we call it by the plain name of bullying, and the elevation of rank cannot alter its character. It is, I think, exceedingly easy to define what ought to be understood by national honor, and that is this:

What is the best character for an individual is the best character for a nation; and wherever the latter exceeds or falls beneath the former, there is a departure from the line of true greatness.¹

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Read the next article in our series on the Founding Fathers: Patrick Henry & The Christian Divide.

Gain fresh insight into the Lord’s Prayer. Read our free online book The Lord’s Prayer for Daily Life. The prayer’s hidden teachings will enrich and inspire you. Click the following link to begin reading the Living Hour book now: The Lord’s Prayer.

1. Some small edits were made in the above passage from Thomas Paine to make it easier to read by modern readers. [↩]

John Dickinson, Divine Providence & Our Freedoms

In this installment of our series dealing with the Founding Fathers–thoughts on Religion, God, and Progressive Christian living, we turn to John Dickinson, a less widely-known Father from Philadelphia who fought during the American Revolution and served as a Pennsylvania delegate to the First Continental Congress in 1774 and the U.S. Constitutional Convention of 1787. Dickinson is perhaps most famous for his declaration to King George III that Americans were resolved to die free men rather than live slaves.

The following passage is taken from John Dickinson’s “Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania to the Inhabitants of the British Colonies.” Here we find Dickinson, the former Progressive Christian President of Pennsylvania, writing eloquently on the freedom that is granted to us by God, and the vigilance that is required to retain that freedom. His comment regarding how our freedoms can be gradually usurped has special resonance for Americans today.

I am no further concerned in anything affecting America, than any one of you; and when liberty leaves it, I can quit it much more conveniently than most of you. But while that Divine Providence which gave me existence in a land of freedom permits my head to think, my lips to speak, and my hand to move, I shall highly and gratefully value this blessing I’ve received, and I’ll take care that my silence and inactivity shall not give my implied assent to any act, degrading my brethren and myself from the birthright, wherewith heaven itself “hath made us free.”

[With Regards to Great Britain] All artful rulers, who strive to extend their power beyond its just limits, try to give to their attempts as much semblance of legality as possible. Those who succeed them may then venture to go a little further; for each new encroachment will be strengthened by the former. In other words, that which is now supported by examples, grows old, and eventually become another example to support fresh usurpations.

A FREE people therefore can never be too quick in observing, nor too firm in opposing the beginnings of alterations in form or reality regarding those institutions established for their security. The first kind of alteration leads to the last. Yet, on the other hand, nothing is more certain than that our forms of liberty may be retained even when the literal substance is gone. In government, as well as in religion, “The letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.”¹

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Read the next article in our series on the Founding Fathers: Thomas Paine on Christianity & True Greatness

Gain fresh insight into the Lord’s Prayer. Read our free online book The Lord’s Prayer for Daily Life. The prayer’s hidden teachings will enrich and inspire you. Click the following link to begin reading the Living Hour book now: The Lord’s Prayer.

1. The above passage from John Dickinson was very lightly edited to make it easier to read by modern readers. [↩]

Benjamin Franklin’s Religion & Jesus of Nazareth

Continuing with The Living Hour’s month-long series on the Founding Fathers’ reflections on God, Christianity, and Religion, we move today to some commentary from that SBNR Progressive Christian Benjamin Franklin. The following passage is taken from a letter Franklin wrote to the reverend Ezra Stile in 1790, when Franklin was 84 years old, and Stile was serving as president of Yale College. Here we find Franklin discussing his perspectives on religion and the significance of Jesus of Nazareth.

Considering Franklin is 84, it is especially interesting to note his statement that this is the first time he has been questioned about his religious beliefs. True to form, Ben Franklin’s answers reveal the reasonable common sense approach that the candle-maker’s son took towards life, as well as the calm and good-natured temperament for which he was well-known.

This correspondence is probably the most definitive one we have on Benjamin Franklin’s religion. His “creed” is certainly one worth emulating.

You desire to know something of my religion. It is the first time I have been questioned upon it. But I do not take your curiosity the wrong way, and will try in a few words to gratify it. Here is my creed: I believe in one God, creator of the universe; that He governs it by his providence; that He ought to be worshipped; that the most acceptable service we can render Him is to do good to his other Children. And that the Soul of Man is immortal, and will be treated with justice in another life respecting its conduct in this.

These I take to be the fundamental principles of all sound religions, and I admire them, as you do, in whatever sect I meet them. As to Jesus of Nazareth, my opinion of whom you particularly desire, I think the system of morals and his religion, as he left them to us, to be the best the world has ever seen, or is likely to see. But I believe it has received various corrupting changes, and I am in accord with the present dissenters in England in having some doubts regarding Jesus’s divinity: although it is a question I do not dogmatize upon, having never studied it, and think it needless to busy myself with it now, when I expect soon the opportunity of knowing the truth with less trouble.

I see no harm however in it being believed, if that belief has the good consequence, as probably it has, of making his doctrines more respected and better observed. I shall only add respecting myself that having experienced the Goodness of that Being in conducting me prosperously through a long Life, I have no doubt of its continuance in the next, even though I hold not the smallest conceit of meriting such Goodness.¹

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Read the next article in our series on the Founding Fathers: John Dickinson, Divine Providence & Our Freedoms

Gain fresh insight into the Lord’s Prayer. Read our free online book The Lord’s Prayer for Daily Life. The prayer’s hidden teachings will enrich and inspire you. Click the following link to begin reading the Living Hour book now: The Lord’s Prayer.

1. Some very small edits were made to the above passage to make it more easily read by the modern reader. [↩]

The Founding Fathers On Christianity, God, & Religion

Many of the Founding Fathers of the United States could be best described as SBNR (Spiritual But Not Religious) Progressive Christians. We at The Living Hour often look back to them for inspiration, for they were leaders who possessed a solid sense of reason that was backed by an understanding of the divine nature of creation and their place in it. As such, they strongly demonstrated all the characteristics of the truly progressive Christian.

Therefore for the next month, our SBNR Motivational series will be featuring passages from Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Paine, John Adams, and other early Americans, on the subjects of Christianity, God, and Religion. To get the ball rolling, let’s begin with the following passage from Thomas Jefferson, taken from a letter to Moses Robinson, the governor of the Vermont Republic who helped usher Vermont to statehood.

In this passage we find Jefferson commenting on the Christian clergy, the Church, and the State, comments which still are very relevant today. Jefferson’s hope that “good sense” will prevail among orthodox Christians is unfortunately still waiting to be realized:

The Eastern States will be the last to come over, because of the dominion of the clergy, who had got a smell of union between Church and State, and began to indulge in reveries that can never be realized in the age of science. If, indeed, they could have prevailed on us to view all the advances in science as dangerous innovations, and to look back to the opinions and practices of our forefathers, instead of looking forward, for improvement, a promising groundwork would have been laid.

But I have hopes that their good sense will show them that since the mountain will not come to them, they had better go to the mountain: that they will find it in their interest to acquiesce to the liberty and science of their country, and that the Christian religion, when divested of the rags in which they have enveloped it, and brought to the original purity and simplicity of its benevolent institutor, is a religion most friendly to liberty, science, and the freest expansion of the human mind.

I sincerely wish with you, we could see our government so secured as to depend less on the character of the person in whose hands it is trusted. Bad men will sometimes get in, and with such an immense patronage, may make great progress in corrupting the public mind and principles. This is a subject with which wisdom and patriotism should be occupied.¹

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Read the next in the series: Benjamin Franklin’s Religion & Jesus of Nazareth.

Gain fresh insight into the Lord’s Prayer. Read our free online book The Lord’s Prayer for Daily Life. The prayer’s hidden teachings will enrich and inspire you. Click the following link to begin reading the Living Hour book now: The Lord’s Prayer.

1. Some very small edits were made to above passage to make the reading easier for the contemporary reader [↩]

The End of Progressive Christianity?

Lately there has been a lot of talk about a “crisis” in Progressive Christianity and whether or not the Progressive Christian movement is dead in the water. Critics claim that new seminary graduates are ill-prepared to lead today’s generation and that new “paradigms” need to be developed. Some progressive ministers are even abandoning the Christian cloak altogether to become “independent” spiritual leaders. One can’t help either being amused or depressed by all the talk, for it relates little to the kind of Christianity that Jesus taught.

The beauty of Jesus’s Christianity is that it has nothing to do with creeds and doctrines; nothing to do with seminaries or the ministers that they churn out. There are no esoteric teachings that Christians must learn, no initiations to undergo, no hoops to jump through. How we worship isn’t confined to what happens within church walls; nor is ministry restricted to the religious affairs of the clergy. The beauty of Jesus’s message is in its pure simplicity, as demonstrated in The Lord’s Prayer he taught his disciples. Living the Christian life is not rocket science.

In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus says “I thank thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that, though thou has hidden [the gospel] from the wise and learned, thou has revealed it unto babes” (11:25). A little later, he adds, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for it is to the childlike that the kingdom of heaven belongs.” (Matthew 19:14). If we ever do see the end of Progressive Christianity, it will be because we’ve forgotten these very simple lessons.¹

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Gain fresh insight into the Lord’s Prayer. Read our free online book The Lord’s Prayer for Daily Life. The prayer’s hidden teachings will enrich and inspire you. Click the following link to begin reading the Living Hour book now: The Lord’s Prayer.

1. For a different perspective see Rita Nakashima-Brock’s essay “We Might Need The End of Progressive Christianity” at ReligionDispatches.org. [↩]

The Moral Effort

In our last motivational, we quoted the progressive Christian Leo Tolstoy as saying that we all can wake up to a real, happy, and peaceful life, as it exists in our consciences (God’s Kingdom within), if we just make the moral effort. That was easy for him to say. While Tolstoy might have inspired Martin Luther King and Gandhi with such words, few of us think we are capable of the moral effort of a Gandhi or MLK. Can’t we all just slide into Heaven by just accepting Jesus Christ as our savior?

Well, that would be nice. But as we talk about in The Lord’s Prayer for Daily Life, Jesus never preached that kind lesson. He told us that we must carry our own crosses¹ and seek to become as perfect as God in Heaven². This, unfortunately, requires a little moral effort on our part.

But we don’t have to get all intimidated by the situation. Moral effort is a lot like will power in that once we break it down, and see it just as a small series of individual choices (the things we choose to do and not to do each day), it becomes a whole lot easier to master. The issue here is not becoming a saint, but summoning the moral courage to make one right choice at this one moment in time. As they say, a thousand mile journey begins with a single step.

Moral effort is also made easier when we begin to reduce the clutter–in other words, removing all those things that are often nothing more than background noise to the soundtrack of our lives. This is especially true today, when computers, iPhones, and Blackberries serve up an endless stream of chatter to fill the empty spaces of our minutes and hours, but do little to bring clarity to our moral efforts: to those progressive Christian efforts which require both solitude and reflection, as well as the silence to ask the question, :In what way is what I am about do or say going to benefit others?”

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Gain fresh insight into the Lord’s Prayer. Read our free online book The Lord’s Prayer for Daily Life. The prayer’s hidden teachings will enrich and inspire you. Click the following link to begin reading the Living Hour book now: The Lord’s Prayer.

1. Calling the people and his disciples to him, Jesus said: “If anyone wishes to walk in my steps, let them renounce self, take up their cross, and follow me. Mark -8:34 [↩]
2. “You, then, must become perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” – Matthew 5:48 [↩]

Leo Tolstoy & The Kingdom of God is Within You

The great Russian author Leo Tolstoy is a monumental figure in the world of literature. His epic novel War and Peace is unrivaled in its breadth and scope. But Tolstoy was more than just a fiction writer. He was a keen observer of the human condition and arguably the most progressive Christian in Russia during the 19th and early 20th century. His later writings on the Christian faith influenced spiritual progressives in the both the West and the East, including famous figures such as Martin Luther King and Gandhi.

Leo Tolstoy’s most influential work on Progressive Christian faith is The Kingdom of God is Within You. The following passage is a one of the book’s most eloquent statements on modern Christian life, as equally true today as when Tolstoy wrote it:

Everyone today who has assimilated Christian principles involuntarily into their conscience, finds themselves in precisely the position of someone who is asleep, and who dreams that they are obliged to do something which even in their dreams they know they shouldn’t do. They know this in the depths of their conscience, and all the same they seem unable to change their position; they cannot stop and cease doing what they ought not do. And just as in a dream, their position becoming more and more painful, it at last reaches a pitch of such intensity that they sometimes begin to doubt the reality of what is passing and make a moral effort to shake off the nightmare that is oppressing them.

This is the condition of the average person in our Christian society. They feel that everything they do themselves and that is done around them is something absurd, hideous, impossible, and opposed to their conscience; they feel that their position is becoming more and more unendurable and reaching a crisis of intensity.

It is not possible that we modern people, with a Christian sense of human dignity and equality permeating us soul and body, with our need for peaceful association and unity between nations, should really go on living in such a way that every joy, every gratification we have is bought by the sufferings, by the lives of our neighbors, and moreover, that we should be every instant within a hair’s-breadth of falling on one another, nation against nation, like wild beasts, mercilessly destroying other people’s lives and labor, only because some benighted politician or ruler says or writes some stupidity to another equally benighted politician or ruler.

It is impossible. Yet everyone of our day sees that this is so and awaits the calamity. And the situation becomes more and more insupportable.

And as the person who is dreaming does not believe that what appears to them can be truly the reality and tries to wake up to the actual real world again, so the average person today cannot in the bottom of their heart believe that the awful position in which they are placed and which is growing worse and worse can be the reality, and tries to wake up to a true, real life, as it exists in their conscience.

Just as the dreamer needs only to make a moral effort and ask themselves, “Isn’t it a dream?” and the situation which seemed to them so hopeless will instantly disappear, revealing a peaceful and happy reality, so the men and women of the modern world need only make a moral effort to doubt the reality presented to them by their own hypocrisy and the general hypocrisy around them, and to ask themselves, “Isn’t it all a delusion?” and they will at once, like the dreamer awakened, feel themselves transported from an imaginary and dreadful world to the true, calm, and happy reality.

To do this, we need not need accomplish great feats or exploits. We need only make a moral effort.

The Kingdom of God is Within you is available to read free online (here).

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Gain fresh insight into the Lord’s Prayer. Read our free online book The Lord’s Prayer for Daily Life. The prayer’s hidden teachings will enrich and inspire you. Click the following link to begin reading the Living Hour book now: The Lord’s Prayer.

Immortality & The Evolution of Christianity & Religion

Continuing with our theme of cultural evolution and the long arc of the moral universe, we turn to the subject of the evolution of Christianity, Religion, and Christian thought. For insight we go to another progressive figure who long has been forgotten by many: British historian Henry Thomas Buckle, who arguably was the first scientific analyzer of social evolution. Like the Unitarian minister Theodore Parker, Buckle is an individual who Progressive Christianity can look toward in re-discovering its heritage.

The following passage on immortality comes from The Essays of Henry Thomas Buckle circa 1863 (unlikely to be found at your local library, unfortunately). Here the SBNR (Spiritual But Not Religious) Buckle talks not just of immortality but the necessary evolution of religion and religious creeds.

One thing I would repeat, because I honestly believe it to be of the deepest importance. Most earnestly would I again urge upon those who cherish the doctrine of immortality, not to defend it by arguments which have a basis smaller than the doctrine itself. I long to see the glorious tenet rescued for the jurisdiction of the narrow and sectarian theology, which foolishly ascribing to a single religion the possession of all truth, proclaims other religions to be false, and debases the most magnificent topics by contracting them with the horizon of its own little vision.

Every creed which has existed long, and has played a great part in our history, contains a large amount of truth, or else it would not have retained its hold upon the human mind. To suppose, however, that any one of them contains the whole truth is to suppose that as soon as a creed was enunciated the limits of inspiration were reached, and the power of inspiration exhausted.

For such a supposition we have no warrant. On the contrary, the history of mankind, if compared in long periods, shows a very slow, but still a clearly marked, improvement in the character of successive creeds; so that if we reason from the analogy of the past, we have a right to hope that the improvement will continue, and that subsequent religious creeds will surpass ours.

Using the word religion in its ordinary sense, we find that religious opinions depend on an immense variety of circumstances which are constantly shifting. Hence it is that whatever rests merely upon these opinions has in it something transient and mutable. Those of us who take a distant and comprehensive view are thus filled with dismay when we see a doctrine like the immortality of the soul defended on such transient grounds.

These advocates imperil their own cause; they make the fundamental depend on the casual; they support what is permanent by what is ephemeral; and with their books, their dogmas, their traditions, their rituals, their records, and their other perishable contrivances, they seek to prove what was known to the world before it existed, and what, if these transient things were to die away, would still be known, and would remain the common heritage of the human species, and the consolation of myriads yet unborn.*

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*A few small edits were made to Buckle’s text to make it more easily read and understood by contemporary readers.

Gain fresh insight into the Lord’s Prayer. Read our free online book The Lord’s Prayer for Daily Life. The prayer’s hidden teachings will enrich and inspire you. Click the following link to begin reading the Living Hour book now: The Lord’s Prayer.

The Progressive Christian: A Working Definition

Readers of LivingHour.org have noticed that we cast a pretty wide net when talking about Progressive Christianity and the works of Progressive Christians. In our online bookstore, our motivational series, and our video picks we include people who’ve never identified themselves as Christians, much less Progressive Christians. Indeed we’ve even included atheists, like Albert Camus, among our sources of Progressive Christian inspiration.

Although our definition of a Progressive Christian may seem a little loose, it is by no means vague. At The Living Hour we see the writers, scientists, philosophers, and preachers that we’ve placed inside the Progressive Christianity circle as all possessing certain defining characteristics–all of which find a voice in the life story of Jesus of Nazareth. These characteristics are:

1) A Progressive Christian questions established thought and refuses to accept blindly the status quo.
2) A Progressive Christian uses their vocation to push the world a little further in a positive direction.
3) A Progressive Christian approaches their work with both joy and a devout temper.
4) A Progressive Christian demonstrates great intellectual curiosity and a generosity of spirit.
5) A Progress Christian shows genuine concern and compassion for humanity.
6) A Progressive Christian follows the truth wherever it may lead.
7) A Progressive Christian is fearlessly honest.

Ultimately a Progressive Christian need not identify themselves as a Progressive Christian to be one or to fall within the circle of Progressive Christianity. For as Jesus once said, there are many folds of people¹ and one doesn’t need to follow Jesus and his disciples directly to do the work of Christ.²

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1. “I have other sheep besides, which do not belong to this fold.” – John 10:16 [↩]
2. “Sir, we saw a man driving out demons by using your name, and we tried to prevent him, because he does not follow you with us.” “None of you must prevent him,” Jesus said to John; “he who is not against us is for us.” – Luke:9-49-50 [↩]

Life is a Boiling Up

The 14th century German vicar Meister Eckhart was in many ways a 21st century Progressive Christian. Although highly educated and an admirer of Thomas Aquinus, Eckhart also realized the limits of formal education, once telling the Paris elite that not one person among them could conceive with all their learning what God was in the meanest creature, not even in a fly.

An indomitable spirit, with seemingly limitless energy and passion, Meister Eckhart’s entire life can be seen as a personification of his realization of the living God. Eckhart wrote:

Life is a boiling up and pouring out of itself, scalding and melting and bubbling within itself, light penetrating light. For life is as it were a gushing up, a thing welling up in itself, pouring a part of itself into another part, as it runs forth and bubbles over beyond itself.

Today our lives, all too often, run contrary to the boiling life. We’ve set the heat down low and covered the pot to gentle simmer, so that nothing escapes, nothing gushes forth and bubbles beyond itself. The living God finds no home there, but in those uncovered souls that joyfully turn up the heat.¹

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The Living Hour’s SBNR motivational series combines history, literature, philosophy, religion, and pop culture to help bring about new perspectives on Progressive Christianity and spirituality. Sign up by entering your email address into the “Opening the Small Gate” box in the right corner of this web page.

1. From everyone to whom much has been given much will be expected, and to those whom much has been entrusted the more will be demanded. I came to cast fire upon the earth; and what more can I wish, if it is already kindled? – Luke 12:48-49 [↩]

How to Teach The Lord’s Prayer to Children

The book The Lords Prayer for Daily Life was written in a way that we hope appeals to both teens and adults, each group of readers being able to take certain lessons from it, or simply food for further thought. But what about the child?

The Lord’s Prayer is the kind of prayer that children can learn at a young age, and it far surpasses that old standard: Now I lay me down to sleep; I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake; I pray the Lord my soul to take–a prayer which makes children think that the Grim Reaper is going to descend upon them in their sleep.

To assist Progressive Christian parents we’ve taken inspiration from the material of The Living Hour book to write some thoughts on how you can teach the Lord’s Prayer to your kids in a meaningful way, so that the act of childhood prayer goes beyond simple recitation. So, if you are asking how to teach the Lord’s Prayer to children, here are our suggestions:

Our Father who art in heaven. Jesus begins the Lord’s Prayer by letting us know that we are all in this together. God, the Father, is the father of all people. He is the father of people who we like and who we dislike; people who we agree with and who we disagree with; people who look like us and don’t look like us; people who believe in him and who don’t believe in him. By telling us that our one true Father is in heaven, Jesus is reminding as that we are all Sons and Daughters of God, and that our lives go on forever.

Hallowed be thy name. You know how when someone calls you by your name, it is like they think they know you? Well, Jesus doesn’t tell us God’s name in the Lord’s Prayer because God is so big we can never know all of him. Jesus can describe God’s name, though. He calls it hallowed. The word “hallowed” comes from the word “holy,” which comes from the word “whole”. Jesus wants us to see us and God always together as a whole being. We are not separate. We are one.

Thy kingdom come, thy will be done. Jesus teaches us in the Bible that the kingdom of God is within us and all around us right now. The problem is that we often don’t see it. Because we don’t see his kingdom, we end up making a lot of bad choices. When we make good choices though we are doing the will of God. We are making his kingdom come alive inside of us and in other people. That is why we should always try hard to make good choices and love each other.

On earth as it is in heaven. When people die they go to heaven, but when they live they go to heaven too. It is just that on earth, heaven (like the kingdom) is pretty hard to see sometimes. People hurt each other and do bad things. We get angry when we don’t get what we want or when people are not nice to us. But Jesus wants us to know that if we can just let those bad feelings go and forgive people, the world can be a pretty wonderful place.

Give us this day our daily bread. We all need food to live, right? Well, in this part of the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus also is talking about something that we need to live. But he is not talking about food. When Jesus taught he liked to use symbols. You know, like a smile is a symbol that you are happy. Jesus is using bread as a symbol of our experiences. Every day we have new experiences. These experiences can make us happy, sad, angry, or whatever. But we need them all, even if we don’t like them all. Because every experience helps us grow.

And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. We all makes mistakes. Sometimes we hurt the feelings of other people and don’t even know it. In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus calls these things that we do wrong “trespasses”. When we trespass the most important thing is to understand what we’ve done. Then to ask for forgiveness. If you forgive other people, then they are more likely to forgive you. It is no good to stay angry at someone. It doesn’t feel good to be angry. When we get angry we just hurt ourselves. So, just forgive people, and you’ll feel a whole lot better. You will also feel a lot better when they forgive you, too.

Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. When we talk to God, sometimes we are tempted to ask him for things we don’t need. We pray to him for special favors. But with this line of the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus is telling us that God is not our private wish factory. God already knows what we need, so we shouldn’t be tempted to pray for stuff. We can though pray for him to protect us all from harm; to protect us from doing things that hurt ourselves and other people–that is what deliver us from evil means.

For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, forever and ever, amen. Jesus ends the prayer with some great news. He tells us that God, our Father, has a great kingdom, has great power, and has great glory. It must be great because it lasts forever and ever. Why is this such great news? Because God shares all of this with his children. That means us! We can share in his kingdom, his power, and his glory, if we pray a lot, forgive a lot, love a lot, and treat others like we want to be treated.

If Jesus were a Zen teacher what might he say? Click on Zen to find out.

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The Lord’s Prayer is a short prayer but one that is layered with meaning. Read our free online book The Lord’s Prayer for Daily Life to begin discovering the prayer’s hidden meanings. Click the following link to begin reading the Living Hour book now: The Lord’s Prayer.

SBNR Progressive Christianity

Since starting LivingHour.org, we have received some wonderful letters from Progressive Christians. This feedback has shown us how truly diverse the “progressive” Christian community is.

Some folks have wondered why we still choose to identify ourselves as “Christians”; while others question our focus on Jesus Christ. A few progressive readers have taken exception with the “authority” we take on The Lord’s Prayer. After all, no one knows for sure whether Jesus of Nazareth even existed, so who are we to say what Jesus “wanted” us to believe?

Good questions all. And we could write long scholarly replies to each one, but as you have come to notice, that is not our style. We expect that Living Hour visitors know that what they read here is simply our educated opinions–ones which we have arrived at after many years of serious reflection and joyful living. If we were to use phrases such as “I think” or “It seems to me” that would be unnecessary, not to mention an insult to our old English professors who wisely counseled, “Don’t tell me it’s your opinion. I already know it’s your opinion! Just say it.”

And say it we have. But why in such a way? Well, suffice to say we keep Jesus as our centrifugal point because we are Americans/Westerners, ones who have been raised within a Christian culture and are the products of a Christian history. To cut ourselves off from that would be like cutting off an appendage. It is ill advised. Rather than abandon Christianity, it is our duty to lift it up and reclaim the spirituality of Jesus from the gatekeepers of religion–in other words, the organized Protestant and Catholic Churches who refuse to evolve and meet the intellectual, emotional, and spiritual needs of their 21st century congregations.

The term “Progressive Christian” though does not necessarily identify someone who shares these evolutionary spiritual beliefs. So in the spirit of camaraderie, and building a community of like-minded individuals that share a common vision (and helping these people find each other), we offer the term SBNR Christian or SBNR Progressive Christian–which can serve as a descriptive for new blogs and websites.

We can expect great diversity in SBNR Progressive Christianity and among SBNR (Spiritual But Not Religious) Christians, but the core beliefs might be defined as follows:

1) A belief that Jesus was a prophet, and that his divinity is one in which we all share, as Sons and Daughters of God.

2) A belief that we should not abandon Christian traditions and iconography, but reinterpret, refashion, and reinvent them.

3) A belief that reason and faith walk hand in hand.

If you launch an SBNR Christianity website and would like us to link to you, please drop us an email at living (at) livinghour.org.

Lastly, for those who might say that being an SBNR Christian is a contradiction in terms, we point them towards the post: Praising Contradictions.

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Sign up to receive The Living Hour’s SBNR Daily Motivationals. This free series combines history, literature, philosophy, psychology, and religion to help bring about new perspectives for Progressive Christians and anyone who seeks a better understanding of “God” and life’s purpose.

The Heritage Christian School & Principal Tim England

John Milton is known to most of us as writer of the epic poem Paradise Lost, but Milton also wrote excellent and thoughtful prose. In some ways, he was a progressive Christian, centuries before Progressive Christianity became a popular term. His work Areopagitica is a classic defense of intellectual freedom—one which had a strong impact on the framers of American Constitution and the ideals they held most sacred.

We were reminded of Milton and his Areopagitica on hearing about Tyler Frost. Tyler is the student at the Heritage Christian School in Findlay, Ohio who was suspended by Principal Tim England for deciding to attend his girlfriend’s prom. England justified his decision by saying: “At a prom there will be many young ladies who will be dressed in the current styles, which would be low cut dresses and things like that, and there will be dancing. How does a young man protect his mind and not have wrong thoughts or lustful thoughts in a situation like that?”

Milton, not to mention folks like Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin, would have a simple answer to Tim England’s question. In Areopagitica, Milton teaches us that the lesson of Adam & Eve in the Garden of Eden is that today our knowledge of what is good is dependent on our knowledge of evil—and that a cloistered virtue that never ventures out to see its adversary is unworthy of praise.

If Milton were to play along with Tim England’s dubious claim that dancing and popular music are inherently evil, he would say that by trying to keep Tyler Frost from attending the Findlay High School prom, England is bringing impurity into the world, not innocence. True virtue is purified by the trials it confronts, not by the trials it avoids.

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St. Matthews, Auckland: Progressive Articles & Videos

If you are looking for some thoughtful meditations and articles written from a progressive Christian perspective, The Living Hour recommends checking out the website of St. Matthews Church in Auckland, New Zealand. The Church, with a lineage that stretches back to the mid 1850s, wisely points out that it needs a modifier (i.e. progressive) to describe its brand of Christianity because contrary to the human tendency to make sweeping generalizations, being “Christian” does not tell us much about a faith community beyond the probability that Jesus plays a part in its beliefs.

On St. Matthews’ Publications page you can find such provocative articles as:

— “Throwing Down the Philosophical Gauntlet: Job, the Holocaust, and Personal Responsibility.

— “May God spare me living in a Christian nation…”

— “A Progressive Church: Beyond Evangelical and Liberal Boundaries”

— “Sexuality: Beyond Stereotypes”

Also found on the website are discussions on reincarnation, Buddhism, sacramental sex, and more. To check out these articles please head on over to: St. Matthews Progressive Christian Publications.

They also have uploaded several interesting videos, including why God is irrational and expects us to be to, which can be found at: St. Matthews Progressive Christian Videos. Overall the St. Matthews’ site is expertly done and is a worthy model for other Progressive Christian churches to emulate.

Your Sins Are Forgiven

Gospel of Mark 2

Some days later, when Jesus came back to Capernaum, the news spread that he was in a house there; 2 And so many people collected together, that after a while there was no room for them even round the door; and he began to tell them his message. 3 And some people came bringing to him a paralyzed man, who was being carried by four bearers. 4 Being, however, unable to get him near to Jesus, owing to the crowd, they removed the roofing below which Jesus was; and, when they had made an opening, they let down the mat on which the paralyzed man was lying.

5 When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the man: “Child, your sins are forgiven.” 6 But some of the teachers of the law who were sitting there were debating in their minds: 7 “Why does this man speak like this? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins except God?”

8 Jesus, at once intuitively aware that they were debating with themselves in this way, said to them: “Why are you debating in your minds about this? 9 Which is easier? To say to the paralyzed man, ‘Your sins are forgiven‘? or to say, ‘Get up, and take up your mat, and walk about’? 10 But that you may know that the Son of Man has power to forgive sins on earth.” He then said to the paralyzed man: “To you I say, get up, take up your mat, and return to your home.” 12 The man got up, and immediately took up his mat, and went out before them all; at which they were amazed, and, as they praised God, they said: “We have never seen anything like this!”

13 Jesus went out again to the sea; and all the people came to him, and he taught them. 14 As he went along, he saw Levi, the son of Alphaeus, sitting in the tax-office, and said to him: “Follow me.” Levi got up and followed him.

15 And later on he was in his house at table, and a number of tax-gatherers and outcasts took their places at table with Jesus and his disciples; for many of them were following him. 16 When the teachers of the law belonging to the party of the Pharisees saw that he was eating in the company of such people, they said to his disciples: “He is eating in the company of tax- gatherers and sinners!” 17 Hearing this, Jesus said: “It is not those who are in health that need a doctor, but those who are ill. I did not come to call the religious, but the outcast.”

What is the ‘Our Father’ Prayer?

To continue reading Chapter 2 of the Gospel of Mark, please click on page 2 below.

Worship Services & How Progressive Christians Worship

When Progressive Christians talk about How We Worship, the discussion usually centers on the goings-on inside the Church walls. While Sunday worship services have an important role to play, what matters even more is the worship that happens during the course of our every-day lives. This daily interactive worship with our immediate neighbors and our inner divinity (Christ) concerned Jesus more than the performance of rituals.

Washing the feet of others (i.e. humbling ourselves in service to our community) is the kind of worship activity that mattered most to Jesus–much more than public hallelujahs¹ and orthodox practices such as recognizing the Sabbath or submitting oneself to formal baptism, a ritual which he told John that they must “suffer” for religion’s sake² not because God demands it–because, after all, rituals only point toward spiritual truths; they are not truths in and of themselves.

When we Christians focus too much on worship rituals in defining “how we worship” we run the risk of elevating the metaphor to God-ordained law, just as the Pharisees did with the Sabbath. Progressive Christian Reverends should begin using the power of the pulpit on Sunday mornings to begin talking more about the daily bread of worship: worship that includes being better stewards of the Garden; caring better for the bodies God has granted us; listening closer for the sound of the Holy Spirit as it struggles to make itself known within us and others; and attending more generously to the needs of family, friends, co-workers, and community as a whole.

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1. “When you pray, you are not to behave as hypocrites do. They like to pray standing in the synagogues and at the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. There, I tell you, is their reward! – Matthew 6:5 [↩]
2. “Suffer it be so for the present,” Jesus answered, “since it is fitting for us thus to satisfy every claim of religion.” Matthew 3:15 [↩]

False Christs & False Prophets

Gospel of Matthew 24

Leaving the temple courts, Jesus was walking away, when his disciples came up to draw his attention to the temple buildings. 2 “Do you see all these things?” he asked. “I tell you, not a single stone will be left here upon another, which will not be throne down,” 3 So, while Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, his disciples came up to him privately and said: “Tell us when this will be, and what will be the sign of your coming, and of the close of the age.”

4 Jesus replied to them as follows: “See that no one leads you astray; 5 For, many will take my name, and come saying ‘I am the Christ,’ and will lead many astray. 6 And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars; take care not to be alarmed, for such things must occur; but the end is not yet here. 7 For ‘nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom,’ and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. 8 All this, however, will be but the beginning of the birth pangs!”

9 “When that time comes, they will give you up to persecution, and will put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations on account of my name. 10 And then many will fall away, and will betray one another, and hate one another. 11 Many false prophets, also, will appear and lead many astray; 12 And, owing to the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold. 13 Yet those who endure to the end shall be saved. 14 And this gospel of the kingdom shall be proclaimed throughout the world as a witness to all nations; and then will come the end.”

15 “As soon, then, as you see ‘the foul desecration,’ mentioned by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place,” (whosoever reads this let them understand) 16 “Then those of you who are in Judea must take refuge in the mountains; 17 And those on the housetops must not go down to get their things that are in their houses; 18 Nor must those who are on their farm turn back to get their cloaks. 19 And woe to the women that are with child, and for those that are nursing infants in those days!”

20 “Pray, too, that your flight may not take place in winter, nor on a Sabbath; 21 For that will be ‘a time of great distress, the like of which has not occurred from the beginning of the world down to the present time’—no, nor ever will again. 22 And had not those days been limited, not a single soul would escape; but for the sake of ‘God’s People’ a limit will be put to them.”

23 “And, at that time, if anyone should say to you: ‘Look! Here is the Christ!’ or ‘Here he is!’ do not believe it; 24 For false Christs and false prophets will arise, and will display great signs and marvels, so that, were it possible, even God’s people would be led astray. 25 Remember, I have told you beforehand. 26 Therefore, if people say to you: ‘He is in the wilderness!’ do not go out there; or: ‘He is in an inner room!’ do not believe it; 27 For, just as lightning will start from the east and flash across to the west, so will it be with the coming of the Son of Man. 28 Wherever a dead body lies, there will the vultures flock.’”

What does the Lord’s Prayer mean?

To continue reading Chapter 24 of the Gospel of Matthew, please click on page 2 below.

Luke – Gospel 20 – Give to Ceasar What Is Ceasar’s

On one of these days, when Jesus was teaching the people in the temple courts and preaching the gospel, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, joined by the councilors, confronted him, 2 And addressing him, said: “Tell us what authority you have to do these things. Who is it that has given you this authority?”

3 “I, too,” said Jesus in reply, “will ask you one question. Give me an answer to it. 4 It is about John’s baptism—was it of divine or of human origin?”

5 But they began arguing together: “If we say ‘divine,’ he will say ‘Why did not you believe him?’ 6 But, if we say ‘human,’ the people will all stone us, for they are persuaded that John was a prophet.” 7 So they answered that they did not know its origin. 8 “Then I,” said Jesus, “refuse to tell you what authority I have to do these things.”

9 Then Jesus began to tell the people this parable; “A man once planted a vineyard, and then rented it out to tenants, and went abroad for a long while. 10 At the proper time he sent a servant to the tenants, that they should give him a share of the produce of the vineyard. The tenants, however, beat him and sent him away empty-handed.”

11 “The owner afterwards sent another servant; but the tenants beat and insulted this man too, and sent him away empty-handed. 12 He sent a third; but they wounded this man also, and threw him outside. 13 ‘What shall I do?’ said the owner of the vineyard. ‘I will send my son, who is very dear to me. Perhaps they will respect him.’”

14 “But, on seeing him, the tenants consulted with one another. ‘Here is the heir!’ they said. ‘Let us kill him, and then the inheritance will become ours.’ 15 So they threw him outside the vineyard and killed him. Now what will the owner of the vineyard do to them? 16 He will come and put those tenants to death, and will rent the vineyard to others.”

“Heaven forbid!” they exclaimed when they heard it. 17 But Jesus looked at them and said: “What then is the meaning of this passage: ‘The very stone which the builders despised has now itself become the corner-stone.’ 18 Everyone who falls on that stone will be dashed to pieces, while anyone on whom it falls—it will scatter them like dust.”

19 After this, the teachers of the law and the chief priest were eager to lay hands on Jesus then and there, but they were afraid of the people; for they saw that it was at them that he had aimed this parable. 20 Having watched their opportunity, they afterwards sent some spies, who pretended to be good men, to catch Jesus in the course of conversation, and so enable them to give him up to the governor’s jurisdiction and authority.

21 These men asked Jesus a question. They said: “Teacher, we know that you are right in what you say and teach, and that you do not take any account of a man’s position, but teach the way of God honestly; 22 Are we right in paying tribute to Caesar or not?”

23 Seeing through their deceitfulness, Jesus said to them: 24 “Show me a coin. Whose head and title are on it?” 25 “The Emperor’s,” they said; and Jesus replied: “Well then, pay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and to God what belongs to God.” 26 They could not lay hold of this answer before the people; and, in their wonder at his reply, they held their tongues.

27 Presently there came up some Sadducees, who maintained that there is no resurrection. Their question was this: 28 “Teacher, Moses laid down for us in his writings that: ‘Should a man’s married brother die, and should he be childless, the man should take the widow as his wife, and raise up a family for his brother.’”

29 “Well, there were once seven brothers; of whom the eldest, after taking a wife, died childless. 30 The second and third brothers both took her as their wife; 31 And so, too, did all seven—dying without children. 32 The woman herself was the last to die. 33 About the woman, then—at the resurrection, whose wife is she to be, all seven brothers having had her as their wife?”

34 “The men and women of this world,” said Jesus, “marry and are given in marriage; 35 But, for those who are thought worthy to attain to that other world and the resurrection from the dead, there is no marrying or being married, 36 Nor indeed can they die again, for they are like angels and, having shared in the resurrection, they are children of God.”

37 “As to the fact that the dead rise, even Moses indicated that, in the passage about the bush, when he calls the Lord the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ 38 Now he is not God of dead men, but of living. For all live unto him.”

39 “Well said, Teacher!” exclaimed some of the teachers of the law, 40 For they did not venture to question him any further. 41 But Jesus said to them: “How is it that people say that the Christ is to be David’s son? 42 For David, in the Book of Psalms, says himself: ‘The Lord said to my lord: “Sit at my right hand, 43 Until I put thy enemies as a stool for thy feet.”‘ 44 David, then, calls him ‘lord,’ so how is he David’s son?”

45 While all the people were listening, Jesus said to the disciples: 46 “Be on your guard against the teachers of the law, who delight to walk about in long robes, and like to be greeted in the streets with respect, and to have the best seats in the synagogues, and places of honor at dinner. 47 These are the men who rob widows of their houses, and make a pretense of saying long prayers. Their sentence will be all the heavier.”

To read the next chapter of the Book of Luke, please go to The Gospel of Luke – 21.

This Online New Testament Gospel of Luke is excerpted from the book The Living Hour: The Lord’s Prayer for Daily Life (with New Century Gospels). Including over 200 bookmarked citations from the canonical Gospels, this Progressive Christian book appeals to the Unitarian spirit at the heart of all faiths.

Challenge your perceptions on the Gospel of Christ, Jesus’s parables, and the Kingdom of God by purchasing The Lord’s Prayer book today. Produced by LivingHour.org, a Thailand-based small press dedicated to publishing unique Learning Easy Thai Language Books, as well as works on progressive spirituality.

John – Gospel 17 – Christ Is The Messenger

After saying this, Jesus raised his eyes heaven-wards, and said: “Father, the hour has come; honor thy Son, that thy Son may honor you; 2 Even as thou gave him power over all mankind, that he should give eternal life to all those whom thou has given him. 3 And the eternal life is this: to know thee the one true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou has sent as thy messenger. 4 I have honored thee on earth by completing the work which thou has given me to do; 5 And now do thou honor me, Father, at thy own side, with the honor which I had at thy side before the world began.”

6 “I have revealed thee to those whom thou gave me from the world; they were thy own, and thou gave them to me; and they have laid thy message to heart. 7 They recognize now that everything that thou gave me was from thee; 8 For I have given them the teaching which thou gave me, and they received it, and clearly understood that I came from thee, and they believed that thou has sent me as thy messenger. 9 I intercede for them; I am not interceding for the world, but for those whom thou has given me, for they are thy own—10 All that is mine is thine, and all that is thine is mine—and I am honored in them.”

11 “Now I am to be in this world no longer, but they are still to be in the world, and I am to come to thee. Holy Father, keep them by that revelation of thy name which thou has given me that they may be one, as we are. 12 While I was with them, I kept them by that revelation, and I have guarded them; and not one of them has been lost, except that lost soul—in fulfillment of scripture. 13 But now I am to come to thee; and I am speaking thus, while still in the world, that they may have my own joy, in all its fullness, in their hearts.”

14 “I have given them thy message; and the world hated them, because they do not belong to the world, even as I do not belong to the world. 15 I do not ask thee to take them out of the world, but to keep them from evil. 16 They do not belong to the world, even as I do not belong to the world. 17 Sanctify them by the truth; thy message is truth. 18 Just as thou has sent me as thy messenger to the world, so I send them as my messengers to the world. 19 And it is for their sakes that I am sanctified myself, so that they also may be truly consecrated.”

20 “But it is not only for them that I am interceding, but also for those who believe in me through their message, 21 That they all may be one—as thou, Father, are in me, and I in you—so the world may believe that thou has sent me as thy messenger. 22 I have given them the honor which thou has given me, that they may be one as we are one—23 I in union with them and thou with me—that so they may be perfected in their union, and thus the world may know that thou has sent me as thy messenger, and that thou has loved them as thou has loved me.”

24 “Father, my desire for all those whom thou has given me is that they may be with me where I am, so that they may see the honor which thou has given me; for thou did love me before the beginning of the world. 25 O righteous Father, though the world did not know thee, I knew thee; and these people knew that thou has sent me as thy messenger. 26 I have made thee known to them, and will do so still; that the love that thou has had for me may be in their hearts, and that I may be in them also.”

To read the next chapter of the Book of John, please go to The Gospel of John – 18.

This Online New Testament Gospel of John is excerpted from the book The Living Hour: The Lord’s Prayer for Daily Life (with New Century Gospels). Including over 200 bookmarked citations from the canonical Gospels, this Progressive Christian book appeals to the Unitarian spirit at the heart of all faiths.

Challenge your perceptions on the Gospel of Christ, Jesus’s parables, and the Kingdom of God by purchasing The Lord’s Prayer book today. Produced by LivingHour.org, a Thailand-based small press dedicated to publishing unique Learning Easy Thai Language Books, as well as works on progressive spirituality.

Luke – Gospel 21 – Win Yourself Life!

Looking up, Jesus saw the rich people putting their gifts into the chests for the temple offerings. 2 He saw, too, a widow in poor circumstances putting two farthings into them. 3 On this he said: “I tell you that this poor widow has put in more than all the others; 4 For everyone else here put in something from what they had to spare, while she, in her need, has put in all she had to live upon.”

5 When some of them spoke about the temple being decorated with beautiful stones and offerings, Jesus said: 6 “As for these things that you are looking at, a time is coming when not one stone will be left upon another here, which will not be thrown down.”

7 So the disciples questioned Jesus: “But, Teacher, when will this be? And what sign will there be when this is near?” 8 And Jesus said: “See that you are not led astray; for many will take my name, and come saying ‘I am He,’ and ‘The time is close at hand.’ Do not follow them. 9 And, when you hear of wars and disturbances, do not be terrified, for these things must occur first; but the end will not be at once.”

10 Then he said to them: “‘Nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom,’ 11 And there will be great earth-quakes, and plagues, and famines in various places, and there will be terrible appearances and signs in the heavens. 12 Before all this, they will lay hands on you and persecute you, and they will betray you to synagogues and put you in prison, bringing you before kings and governors for the sake of my name. 13 Then will be your opportunity of testifying for me.”

14 “Make up your minds, therefore, not to prepare your defense; 15 For I will myself give you words, and a wisdom which all your opponents together will be unable to resist or defy. 16 You will be betrayed even by your parents, and brothers, and relations, and friends, and they will cause some of you to be put to death, 17 And you will be hated by everyone on account of my name. 18 Yet not a single hair of your heads shall be lost! 19 By your endurance you shall win yourselves life.”

20 “As soon, however, as you see Jerusalem surrounded by armed camps, then you may know that the hour of her desecration is at hand. 21 Then those of you who are in Judea must take refuge in the mountains; those who are in Jerusalem must leave at once; and those who are in the country places must not go into it. 22 For these are to be the days of vengeance, when all that scripture says will be fulfilled.”

23 “Woe to the women that are with child, and for those that are nursing infants in those days! For there will be great suffering in the land, and anger against this people. 24 They will fall by the edge of the sword, and will be taken prisoners to every land, and ‘Jerusalem will be under the heel of the Gentiles,’ until their day is over—as it shall be.”

25 “There will be signs, too (in the sun, and moon, and stars), and on the earth despair among the nations, as they dismay at the roar of the sea and the surge. 26 People’s hearts will fail them through dread of what is coming upon the world; for ‘the forces of the heavens will be convulsed.’ 27 Then will be seen the ‘Son of Man coming in a cloud’ with power and great glory. 28 And, when these things begin to occur, look upwards and lift your heads, for your deliverance will be at hand.”

29 Then he taught them a lesson: “Look at the fig tree and all the other trees. 30 As soon as they shoot forth, you know, as you look at them, without being told, that summer is near. 31 And so may you, as soon as you see these things happening, know that the kingdom of God is near. 32 I tell you that even the present generation will not pass away till all has taken place. 33 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.”

34 “Be on your guard else your minds should ever be dulled by debauches or drunkenness or the anxieties of life, and lest that day should come suddenly upon you, like a snare. 35 For come it will upon all who are living upon the face of the whole earth. 36 Be on the watch at all times, and pray that you may have strength to escape all that is destined to happen, and to stand in the presence of the Son of Man.”

37 During the days, Jesus continued to teach in the temple courts, but he went out and spent the nights on the hill called the ‘Mount of Olives.’ 38 And all the people would get up early in the morning, and come to listen to him in the temple courts.

To read the next chapter of the Book of Luke, please go toThe Gospel of Luke – 22.

This Online New Testament Gospel of Luke is excerpted from the book The Living Hour: The Lord’s Prayer for Daily Life (with New Century Gospels). Including over 200 bookmarked citations from the canonical Gospels, this Progressive Christian book appeals to the Unitarian spirit at the heart of all faiths.

Challenge your perceptions on the Gospel of Christ, Jesus’s parables, and the Kingdom of God by purchasing The Lord’s Prayer book today. Produced by LivingHour.org, a Thailand-based small press dedicated to publishing unique Learning Easy Thai Language Books, as well as works on progressive spirituality.

Parable of the Ten Bridesmaids

Gospel of Matthew 25

“Then the kingdom of heaven will be like ten bridesmaids who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. 2 Five of them were foolish, and five were prudent. 3 The foolish ones took their lamps, but took no oil with them; 4 While the prudent ones, besides taking their lamps, took oil in their jars. 5 As the bridegroom was late in coming, they all became drowsy, and slept. 6 But at midnight a shout was raised: ‘The Bridegroom is coming! Come out to meet him!’

7 Then all the bridesmaids awoke and trimmed their lamps. 8 And the foolish said to the prudent: ‘Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.’ 9 But the prudent ones answered: ‘No, for fear that there will not be enough for you and for us. Go instead to those who sell it, and buy for yourselves.’10 But while they were on their way to buy it, the bridegroom came; and the bridesmaids who were ready went in with him to the banquet, and the door was shut. 11 Afterwards the other bridesmaids came. ‘Sir, Sir,’ they said, ‘open the door to us!’12 But the bridegroom answered ‘I tell you, I do not know you.’

13 Therefore watch, since you know neither the day nor the hour. 14 For it is as though a man, going on his travels, called his servants, and gave his property into their charge. 15 He gave three thousand pounds to one, twelve hundred to another, and six hundred to a third, in proportion to the ability of each. Then he set out on his travels. 16 The man who had received the three thousand pounds went at once and traded with it, and made another three thousand. 17 So, too, the man who had received the twelve hundred pounds made another twelve hundred. 18 But the servant who had received the six hundred went and dug a hole in the ground, and hid his master’s money.

19 After a long time the master of those servants returned, and settled accounts with them. 20 The man who had received the three thousand pounds came up and brought three thousand more. ‘Sir,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with three thousand pounds; look, I have made another three thousand!’ 21 ‘Well done, good, trustworthy servant!’ said his master. ‘You have been trustworthy with a small sum; now I will place a large one in your hands; come and share your master’s joy!’

22 Then the one who had received the twelve hundred pounds came up and said ‘Sir, you entrusted me with twelve hundred pounds; look, I have made another twelve hundred!’ 23 ‘Well done, good, trustworthy servant!’ said his master. ‘You have been trustworthy with a small sum; now I will place a large one in your hands; come and share your master’s joy!’

Discover the Lord’s Prayer

To continue reading Chapter 25 of the Gospel of Matthew, please click on page 2 below.

Thirty Pieces of Silver

Gospel of Matthew 26

When Jesus had finished all this teaching, he said to his disciples: 2 “You know that in two days time, the festival of the Passover will be here; and that the Son of Man is to be given up to be crucified.” 3 Then the chief priests and the councilors of the nation met in the house of the high priest, named Caiaphas, 4 And plotted together to arrest Jesus by stealth and put him to death; 5 But they said: “Not during the festival, for fear of causing a riot.”

6 After Jesus had reached Bethany, and while he was in the house of Simon the leper, 7 A woman came up to him with an alabaster jar of very costly ointment, and poured the ointment upon his head as he was at a table. 8 The disciples were indignant at seeing this. “What is this waste for?” they exclaimed. 9 “It could have been sold for a large sum, and the money given to poor people.” 10 “Why are you troubling the woman?” Jesus said, when he noticed it, “For this is a beautiful deed that she has done to me.”

11 “You always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me. 12 In pouring this perfume on my body, she has done it for my burial. 13 I tell you, wherever in the whole world this gospel is proclaimed, what this woman has done will be told in memory of her.” 14 It was then that one of the twelve, named Judas Iscariot, made his way to the chief priests, 15 And said “What are you willing to give me, if I betray Jesus to you?” The priests ‘weighed him out thirty pieces of silver‘ as payment. 16 So from that time Judas looked for an opportunity to betray Jesus.

17 On the first day of the festival of the unleavened bread, the disciples came up to Jesus, and said: “Where do you wish us to make preparations for you to eat the Passover?” 18 “Go into the city to a certain man,” he answered, “and say to him: ‘The Teacher says: My time is at hand. I will keep the Passover with my disciples at your house.’” 19 The disciples did as Jesus directed them, and prepared the Passover.

20 In the evening Jesus took his place with the twelve disciples, 21 And, while they were eating, he said: “I tell you that one of you will betray me.” 22 In great grief they began to say to him, one by one: “Can it be I, Master?” 23 “The one who dipped his bread beside me in the dish,” replied Jesus, “is the one who will betray me. 24 True, the Son of Man must go, as scripture says of him, yet woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is being betrayed! For that man ‘it would be better never to have been born!’” 25 And Judas, who was betraying him, turned to him and said: “Can it be I, Rabbi?” “You have said it,” answered Jesus.

26 While they were eating, Jesus took some bread, and, after saying the blessing, broke it and, as he gave it to his disciples, said: “Take it and eat it; this is my body.” 27 Then he took a cup, and, after saying the thanksgiving, gave it to them, with the words: “Drink from it, all of you; 28 For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the forgiveness of sins. 29 And I tell you that I shall never, after this, drink of this juice of the grape, until that day when I shall drink it new with you in the kingdom of my Father.” 30 They then sang a hymn, and went out to the Mount of Olives.

31 Then Jesus said to them: “Even you will fall away from me tonight. Scripture says: ‘I will strike down the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’ 32 But, after I have risen, I shall go before you into Galilee.” 33 “If everyone else falls away from you,” Peter answered, “I shall never fall away!” 34 “I tell you,” replied Jesus, “that this very night, before the cock crows, you will disown me three times!” 35 “Even if I must die with you,” Peter exclaimed, “I shall never disown you!” All the disciples spoke in the same way.

36 Then Jesus came with them to a garden called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples: “Sit down here while I go and pray yonder.” 37 Taking with him Peter, and the two sons of Zebediah, he began to show signs of sadness and deep distress of mind. 38 “I am sad at heart,” he said, “sad even to death; wait here and watch with me.” 39 Going on a little further, he threw himself on his face in prayer. “My Father,” he said, “if it is possible, let me be spared this cup; only, not as I will, but as thou willest.”

40 Then he came to his disciples, and found them asleep. “What!” he said to Peter, “could none of you watch with me for one hour? 41 Watch and pray, that you may not fall into temptation. True, the spirit is eager, but human nature is weak.” 42 Again, a second time, he went away, and prayed. “My Father,” he said, “if I cannot be spared this cup, but must drink it, thy will be done!”

What is the Lord’s Prayer?

To continue reading Chapter 26 of the Gospel of Matthew, please click on page 2 below.

Forsaken Me

Gospel of Matthew 27

At daybreak all the chief priests and the councilors of the nation consulted together against Jesus, to bring about his death. 2 They put him in chains and led him away, and gave him up to the Roman governor, Pilate. 3 Then Judas, who betrayed him, seeing that Jesus was condemned, repented of what he had done, and returned the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and councilors. 4 “I did wrong in betraying a good man to his death,” he said. “What has that to do with us?” they replied. “You must see to that yourself.”

5 Judas flung down the pieces of silver in the temple and left; and went away and hanged himself. 6 The chief priests took the pieces of silver, but they said: “We must not put them into the temple treasury, because they are blood-money.” 7 So after consultation, they bought with them the ‘Potter’s Field’ for a burial-ground for foreigners; 8 And that is why that field is called the ‘Field of Blood’ to this very day. 9 It was then that these words spoken by the prophet Jeremiah were fulfilled: ‘They took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him who was valued, whom some of the people of Israel valued, 10 And gave them for the potter’s field, as the Lord commanded me.’

11 Meanwhile Jesus was brought before the Roman governor. “Are you the King of the Jews?” asked the governor. “That is what you say,” answered Jesus. 12 While charges were being brought against him by the chief priests and councilors, Jesus made no reply. 13 Then Pilate said to him: “Do not you hear how many accusations they are making against you?” 14 Yet Jesus made no reply, not even a single word; at which the governor was greatly astonished.

15 Now, at the feast, the governor was accustomed to grant the people the release of any one prisoner whom they might choose. 16 At that time they had a notorious prisoner called Barabbas. 17 So, when the people had gathered, Pilate said to them: “Which do you wish me to release for you? Barabbas? Or Jesus who is called ‘Christ’?” 18 For he knew that it was out of jealousy that they had given Jesus up to him.

19 While he was still on the bench, his wife sent this message to him: “Do not have anything to do with that good man, for I have been very unhappy today because of a dream I had of him.” 20 But the chief priests and the councilors persuaded the crowds to ask for Barabbas, and to kill Jesus. 21 The governor, however, said to them: “Which of these two do you wish me to release for you?” “Barabbas,” they answered. 22 “What then,” Pilate asked, “shall I do with Jesus who is called ‘Christ’?” “Let him be crucified,” they all replied. 23 “Why, what harm has he done?” he asked. But they kept shouting furiously: “Let him be crucified!”

24 When Pilate saw that contrary to his efforts a riot was beginning, he took some water and washed his hands in the sight of the crowd, saying as he did so: “I am not answerable for this bloodshed; you must see to it yourselves.” 25 And all the people answered: “His blood be on our heads and on our children’s!” 26 Then Pilate released Barabbas to them; but Jesus he scourged and gave him up to be crucified.

27 After that, the governor’s soldiers took Jesus with them into the government house and gathered the whole garrison round him. 28 They stripped him and put on him a red military cloak, 29 And having twisted some thorns into a crown, put it on his head, and a rod in his right hand, and then, going down on their knees before him, they mocked him: “Hail, King of the Jews!” 30 They spat at him and, taking the rod, kept striking him on the head; 31 And, when they had quit mocking him, they took off the military cloak, and put his own clothes on him, and led him away to be crucified.

What is the Lord’s Prayer?

To continue reading Chapter 27 of the Gospel of Matthew, click on page 2 below.

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