Connections

This site serves as the connection between my two blogs, Wrestling with the Word  and Whose We Are. The first of these, Wrestling with the Word, is a discussion about the Bible passages assigned for each Sunday in the Revised Common Lectionary. The podcasts and accompanying show notes provide for pastors and for lay persons some background on each of the four Bible passages. I also look at the integration of the passages with one another to contribute to a theme for the day. I post these discussions two to three weeks in advance of the Sunday under consideration.

The second blog, Whose We Are, offers my own thoughts and those of others through interviews on spirituality, stewardship, and social justice. These three concerns overlap considerably, as the issues of our identity and the role we play in the world for the sake of others points in many directions.

I hope you benefit from these blogs. And as always I will appreciate your comments as we progress.

Hello everyone!

Welcome to my blog. I am Foster McCurley. Blogging is a new adventure for me. In retirement a person needs new adventures, and so–thanks to the encouragement of my daughter Dana and her husband Paul–blogging and podcasting will enable me to communicate anew with people interested in discussing spirituality, stewardship, and social justice.

During the past forty-six years I have devoted my passions and energy to examining the inspired witnesses whose testimony has been collected in the Bible. I lectured, wrote books and articles, and produced audiotapes to communicate my probable conclusions about why they wrote, what their audiences heard and read, what their lives were like as individuals and in their communities. Sometimes, when they were feeling blessed, they wrote and sang to God their praises. Other times they felt God-forsaken and lamented their individual and community griefs to their God.

In the midst of these various messages the biblical writers were searching for meaning. They struggled to understand who they were and how they got that way. They sought methods to demonstrate responsibility to God and their neighbors when things were rosy, and when life went sour, they longed desperately for hope and help.

On this site and in the podcasts that develop out of it, we will seek to identify with those ancient writers in their stories. We will then discuss how they in speaking to their times might assist us today to address concerns about spirituality, stewardship, and social justice.