People often get upset when you teach them what is in the Bible rather than what they presume is in the Bible.

What many people today assume Christianity to be is basically Plutarch plus Jesus.

Death is the ultimate weapon of the tyrant; resurrection does not make a covenant with death, it overthrows it.

For me, actually, being a bishop in a bishopric where there's an academic tradition gives me this fascinating, challenging, but open invitation to say, "We want you to be a scholar. We want you to go on doing this. But do it as a bishop!"

Jesus' death was seen by Jesus himself ... as the ultimate means by which God's kingdom was established. The crucifixion was the shocking answer to the prayer that God's kingdom would come on earth as in heaven.

But the voice goes on, calling us, beckoning us, luring us to think that there might be such a thing as justice, as the world being put to rights, even though we find it so elusive. We're like moths trying to fly to the moon. We all know there's something called justice, but we can't quite get to it.

Traditions tell us where we have come from. Scripture itself is a better guide as to where we should now be going.