Barnabas File

The Fourth of July gives us the opportunity to celebrate our freedoms, but the other side of the coin are the responsibilities that go with freedoms.     Paul White of Appreciation at Work addressed these freedoms in a recent blog : The freedom to live where we want. The freedom to choose our vocation. The freedom to speak our minds freely. The freedom to gather in groups publicly. The freedom to choose our religious beliefs. Although we could get into a great discussion about how absolute these freedoms are and how they are limited by socioeconomic circumstances, I want to respond to this question that White asks: “What responsibilities go with the freedoms and rights that we have?” I would suggest first is the responsibility of citizenship.  This involves obeying the laws, paying our taxes, accepting civic responsibilities (voting and serving on juries), and serving our community as volunteers and in military service.  Again, these ...

The relationship between God and Israel recounted in the Hebrew Bible is a bit of a roller-coaster ride.     A good example is found in Exodus 32.     God has delivered the Israelites from Egypt. They have gathered at the foot of Mount Sinai to worship God, receive the Ten Commandments, and affirm a covenant with the Deliverer God.     Moses goes up to the mountain for 40 days to receive the commandments etched on stone by God and full instructions for a Tabernacle to symbolize God’s presence with the people.   Then it all falls apart. For their own reasons, the people despair of Moses’ returning and are afraid that this God he has proclaimed has forsaken them.  They call on Aaron to help them create a golden idol that they can see and worship.  They rebel. God sees this happening and declares to Moses, “Go down, because your people, whom you brought up out of Egypt, have become corrupt.”  (32:7, NIV)....

My Netflix subscription this year was a good investment if I had only watched one series:  The Crown .  Although I have viewed several of the streaming service’s original series,  this is the best so far. The series plans to depict the life of Queen Elizabeth II.   The first season begins with her wedding in 1947 and goes through the first years of her reign up to 1955.  Although this all happened within my lifetime, I would have to call it historical drama.  Visually extravagant with meticulous attention to period costumes and furnishings, the series rarely makes a misstep.  The series functions on two levels—family drama and politics.  On one level, we have the soap opera of family relationships impacted by both royal privilege and responsibility.  The other level is the political and historical realities of the period.  For example, in “Gloriana” (episode 10), Prime minister Anthony Eden (Jeremy Northam) is deal...