When I think about what is the greatest challenge we Christians face today, it is not the coarseness of mass media, or the infringement of our First Amendment rights, or even Sunday morning soccer games. No, the greatest threat we face in our life with God is not any of these usual suspects; rather it’s our refusal to wrestle with God’s Word.

Jesus asks his disciples, if a slave should be rewarded for just doing what they are told to do. No, of course not. Just so, Jesus says, when believers have done what is expected of us, what God commanded, no matter how difficult or how impactful, we should say, “We are worthless slaves. We have only done what we ought to have done.” You can’t find a more explicitly demeaning and denigrating statement of humanity’s state than that.

If you ever study the parables, one of the things you quickly appreciate is how timeless they are, how no matter whether you are living in the 1st century or the 9th or the 21st, they still resonate. The characters and the situations depicted in the stories are ones we can all relate to. It’s natural, then, that in telling the stories today, we might imagine names for the characters, to make them even more relatable. So, in the Parable of the Prodigal Son, say, maybe we’ll ca

Here, Jesus tells the story of a lazy, dishonest manager who gets called on the carpet by his boss for wasting the company’s money. He’s told he has till tomorrow morning to get the books in order to give a full account of his management. Realizing he’s in hot water, the manager gets an idea. He goes to some of his boss’s clients and offers to mark down what they owe. When they ask why, the manager winks at them and says, "Don't ask, but just remember I did you a favor once."

Two years ago, the residents of New York City were surprised to see a new statue adorning the appellate courthouse. Next to statues of famous lawgivers like Moses, Alfred the Great, and Emperor Justinian stood an eight-foot tall, golden figure of a woman. Only this woman was like no woman you’ve ever seen. She had long braids that were curled up to look like rams’ horns and, in the place of arms and feet, she bore a bundle of tentacles. While not exactly menacing, the figure