Ben Jammin' Zilla

  The first day of Coffee with Calvin  is titled " Scripture: Our Spectacles" (p. 2)  Just as old or bleary-eyed men… if you thrust before them a most beautiful volume, even if they recognize it to be some sort of writing, yet can scarcely construe two words, but with the aid of spectacles will begin to read distinctly; so Scripture, gathering up the otherwise confused knowledge of God in our minds, having dispersed our dullness, clearly shows us the true God. ( Institutes I.6.1) The comparison of Scripture and its function in how humanity knows God to a pair of corrective spectacles is one of Calvin's more famous statements. It is a compelling analogy for me because it helps us consider the relationship between Scripture and our capacity for vision . In other words, for Calvin, Scripture gives clear and corrective knowledge of God.  It is clear knowledge because it is revelation from God's own Voice - God personally tells us about God's own self, and God's o...

Last summer  I started a John Calvin devotional by the Presbyterian (PCUSA) scholar of Reformed theology Donald K. McKim. I never finished it however. It is titled Coffee with Calvin: Daily Devotions (WJK Press, 2013). Now that I am working for an Anglo-Catholic church, questions of Protestant and Catholic theology have been at the forefront of my musing and thinking. So I thought this Advent would be a good opportunity for me to pick it up and blog through it. I am hoping to read two or three little sections per day and make comments. Advent and Calvin... what a delectable combination! 

  August 15 : The Feast of Mary the Virgin, Mother of God Isa 61.10-11 · Ps 34 · Gal 4.4-7 · Luk 1.46-55 Ben Miller “Mary, the first Christian” A sermon preached at Christ Episcopal Church ( Lead, SD ) Sunday 2021.8.15 Today’s feast asks us two questions today: One: Who is a Christian?   And two: What kind of God is the God of Israel?   Maybe you take these questions for granted because they seem obvious to you.   But the thing about being a disciple, though, the thing about following Jesus, is that you often need to be challenged on the things you think are most obvious. And this is the gift of reflecting on the the Virgin Mary today. Mary is someone who challenge’s the Church’s expectations because it is by Mary’s assent to the will of the Father that his Eternal Son was able to be conceived by the Holy Spirit and enter this world as a flesh and blood human being.   This is all to say that it was by a poor, scared, and faithful Palestinian teenager’s assent ...

  Ben Miller “The Plenteous Redemption of the Bread of Life” A sermon delivered at Christ Episcopal Church ( Lead, SD ) XI Sunday After Pentecost, 2021.8.8 Season After Pentecost : Proper XIV (Track 1), Year B II Sam 18.5-9, 15, 31-33 / Ps 130 / Eph 4.25-5.2 / Jn 6.35, 41-51 Do you know why the Crucifixion of Jesus is called the Passion of the Christ? It’s not about feelings or strong emotions, although there were many strong feelings and much weeping and gnashing of teeth involved in that event. It’s called the Passion of the Christ because it’s derived from the Latin word for “suffering.” So here’s the thing. The same Latin word for “suffering” is also how we get the word “passive.” And what does it mean to be passive? To be passive is to not be active—when you are active, you do things. You make things happen. When you are passive, you don’t do anything—you let things happen to you. And this connection between the words passion and passive is why I have risked the horrible c...