Articles by Fleming Rutledge

Living by the Word

For grown-ups

Isaiah 52:7-10; John 1:1-14

Dec 15, 1999 by Fleming Rutledge

The first three Sundays of Advent speak of an adult Christ and the future reign of God, not of an infant born in the past. Only on the fourth Sunday of Advent do we turn back to the event of annunciation, and then on Christmas Eve to the birth of the Christ child.

Living by the Word

God’s entrance

2 Samuel 7:1-16; Luke 1:26-38

Dec 08, 1999 by Fleming Rutledge

How strange that in the space of just one recent week a book reviewer in the New York Times mentions the "frisson-inducing" discovery only nine years ago of a ninth century BC stele referring to the "House of David," thus issuing "a stony rebuff to those who think that David is a mythical figure," while another reviewer, writing about Thomas Cahill's new book, raised seriously the ques

Living by the Word

The two faces of Advent

John 1:6-8, 19-28

Dec 01, 1999 by Fleming Rutledge

Who among us would tolerate John the Baptist for even a few minutes? I understand that there is a medallion called "Laughing Jesus" being handed around.

Living by the Word

Cover-ups

Psalm 85

Nov 17, 1999 by Fleming Rutledge

Blaise Pascal evokes a sense of existential dread in this famous line: "The eternal silence of those infinite spaces terrifies me." In his poem For the Time Being: A Christmas Oratorio, W. H. Auden pictures the human being forsaken in a blank, fathomless universe:

Living by the Word

Royalty stoops

Matthew 25:31-46

Nov 10, 1999 by Fleming Rutledge

Not long before the onset of the cancer that finally killed him, King Hussein of Jordan undertook a small mission. He paid a personal visit to the families of some Israelis who had been killed in an Arab terrorist bombing.