Tag: bible passage

In Wine There Is Truth

Holy communion

Are the body and blood real?

Wash my feet with wine

Then he took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” And he did the same with the cup after supper, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.

Luke 22:19-20 NRSV

Holy Communion is also called the Last Supper or the Eucharist in Christianity. The one thing that I can say for sure is that Christianity is not united in its doctrines. Take Holy Communion for one. The Lutherans and Catholics believe in transubstantiation, that the bread and wine mysteriously change into the real body and blood of Jesus. But, doesn’t Genesis 9:4 say that “you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood?” Anyway, other churches believe in consubstantiation, or that it’s “spiritual” and not literal. Others drink grape juice and eat wafer crackers, almost like a snack. And let’s not get into the proper disposal of the leftovers! Only in the Gospel of John is it mentioned that Jesus washed feet. My point again – no unity in the Christian way of doing things. Let’s try baptism next time!

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Weird Bible Verse #4

Bullied by children

Elisha summoned two bears

Forty-two boys mauled

He [Elisha] went up from there to Bethel; and while he was going up on the way, some small boys came out of the city and jeered at him, saying, “Go away, baldhead! Go away, baldhead!” When he turned around and saw them, he cursed them in the name of the Lord. Then two she-bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of the boys.

2 Kings 2:23-24 NRSV

Can anyone tell me what the moral of this story (2 Kings 2:23-24) might be? The Bible commentaries on this passage say stuff like “in the original language, this means blah, blah.” I’m not interested in the original language because I only know what’s in front of me in English. As I read this passage in English in the version of the Bible that I am reading, or that my church subscribes to, it doesn’t mean anything but what it says!

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Hide-and-Seek God

Invisible God

If seeing is believing…

Why are you hiding?

 But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.”

John 20:24-29 NRSV

Yes, I am a skeptic just like the Apostle Thomas. He doubted like I doubt now, but he got the proof he needed. I’m still waiting for God to show his face to me. I don’t necessarily wish to touch his wounds. Maybe having a beer or two with him would convince me.

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Weird Bible Verse #2

Do not sit where a

Menstruating woman has sat

Seven days unclean!

 When a woman has a discharge of blood that is her regular discharge from her body, she shall be in her impurity for seven days, and whoever touches her shall be unclean until the evening. Everything upon which she lies during her impurity shall be unclean; everything also upon which she sits shall be unclean. Whoever touches her bed shall wash his clothes, and bathe in water, and be unclean until the evening.

Leviticus 15:19-21 NRSV

Tampons weren’t invented yet so you gotta have rules for women on their periods. I kinda like the haiku version of this Levitical Law.

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