Stories of politicians and clergy using positions of power for sexual abuse are painfully familiar, a reminder that no leader is above the need for boundaries and safeguards. I ponder this as I look down on neighboring houses from the top of the City of David, a small spur of mountain immediately south of today’s…
Author: nelsonkraybill
J. Nelson Kraybill is a retired pastor in Elkhart, Indiana and president of Mennonite World Conference. He was director of the London Mennonite Centre in England (1991-1996) and president of Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary (1997-2009) in Indiana. With a doctorate in New Testament from Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Virginia, he is author of several books, including APOCALYPSE AND ALLEGIANCE: WORSHIP, POLITICS AND DEVOTION IN THE BOOK OF REVELATION (Brazos, 2010). He annually leads tours to the Holy Land which anyone is welcome to join.
The two Joshuas of Jericho
Anyone who grieves the loss of life through war in Syria today might also lament the slaughter that took place more than three thousand years ago at Jericho when Israelites crossed the Jordan River into Canaan. Israelites “devoted to destruction by the edge of the sword all in the city, both men and women, young…
True worship includes justice
Encased behind heavy glass, a five-foot menorah lampstand made of 24 karat gold stands in a courtyard overlooking the Western Wall and the site of the ancient temple in Jerusalem. The lampstand is ready for use in a theoretical Third Temple on a part of the Temple Mount (or “Noble Sanctuary”) where Dome of the…
Like the first syllable of shiitake
What would it take to make Saint Paul cussing mad? Fellow Jews or Christians maintaining barriers that kept others from full acceptance in the faith community, that would do it. Harsh language about such exclusion in Paul’s letter to the church at Philippi makes me consider how easy it is to raise the bar in…
Subversive women in the Judean hills
Fleeing violence in her native Honduras, Maria made her way through Guatemala and Mexico to Indiana and our congregation in Elkhart. Now she daily awaits word that a nephew has safely completed the same perilous journey. A cousin died in the desert attempting that crossing, and his body lay undiscovered for a year. Mary of…
We live in an age of martyrdom
Thousands of Christians have been slaughtered by Boko Haram in Nigeria in recent years, and most of the Western church barely seems to notice. Lord, when did we see you homeless, or hungry, or kneeling in the killing fields? When in Jerusalem, I pause at St. Stephen’s Gate to remember martyrs of the ancient and…
Exaggerated stuff in Christianity
“Yes, we are Christians,” an elderly man said on the Greek island of Milos after giving directions to my wife Ellen and me. “But we don’t believe the exaggerated stuff.” That unexpected comment came after I noticed small silver crosses he and his wife each wore. “You are Christians!” I said. Friendly conversation followed, and…
Time to forgive Judas?
On the morning Jesus was condemned to die, Judas took his own life at the Field of Blood. His death makes me sad, since suicide always leaves a devastating wound among family and friends. Such a violent end for Judas is tragic, because good intentions may have motivated his decision to turn Jesus into the…
Are you going to wash my feet?
Two days after open heart surgery in January, I peed on my socks. You perhaps would do the same if a surgeon so recently had split open your chest, stopped your heart, and grafted in three bypass arteries taken from your leg, arm and inner torso. Heavily sedated for pain and unsteady on my feet,…
The conflict ladder of shame
Do you know that Muslims daily lock and unlock the most hallowed building of Christianity, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem? This ancient structure encompasses Golgotha and the tomb of our risen Lord—both within one great edifice. Christians have so much trouble getting along that we cannot agree how to share the task of…
Holy Lands Peace Pilgrim 