So, what is all of this exegetical nonsense, anyway?  If you’ve been following along on Twitter and you’re not a #chuchgeek yourself, it’s probably just a word your eyes have glossed over.  Or, if you’re my sister Rose, it’s a word you’ve gone and looked up.  (Bless her heart, she’s very supportive of me.)

So, exegesis is an in depth study and interpretation of a text, especially the bible.  An exegete is one who does exegesis.  When I started this weekly endeavor–me spending all day on Monday doing exegesis on the following Sunday’s readings and then making it super duper pretty and sending it out to people who have a paid subscription–I was chatting with my friend and colleague Phil.  He pointed out that I had an unfair advantage in the production of such a thing, as I went to a seminary that actually required of its students not one exegesis, but many.  (And oh, how we bitched.  But we did it anyway.)  It’s true.  My seminary, Virginia Theological Seminary, has many faults ::cough::liturgy::cough:: but let me tell you, biblical studies isn’t one of them.

So, I’m doing this thing.  I’m calling it The Monday Morning Exegete, for perhaps some obvious reasons.  It’s for normal people who find the Bible scary, daunting, out of date, or just plain confusing.  It’s for parishes who want reasonably researched and insightful blurbs for their weekly newsletters.  It’s for preachers who have never preached on this passage before, or who have already preached on it four times.  It’s a jumping off point for conversation groups–the ones at the coffee shop, or the ones in your head.

It’s $20/month, but if you’re interested, drop me a line and I’ll set you up for a month for free and you can check it out yourself.  And just because I love you, and I’m not above shameless self-promotion, here’s this week’s Monday Morning Exegete.