In case you don’t know, Eddie and I follow the lectionary for these weekly comments. The last church year spent a majority of its time in the Gospel of Luke. With this new church year, beginning with this, the first post in Advent, will focus primarily on the gospel of Matthew. I never [...]

When I read and meditated on this familiar story I began to hum the words of the African-American Spiritual, “Were you there, when they crucified my Lord?” Then I thought, “If I had been there, whose company would I have been keeping?” Luke’s account focuses on the various groups and individuals present at Calvary.

Read the words of Jesus , really read the words of Jesus and it is very difficult to come up with an idea that the lifestyle of a disciple of Jesus is an easy one. Again, in this passage, Jesus warns his followers that they are called to a difficult task, not for the faint [...]

One tactic adopted by those endeavoring to debunk belief in the resurrection is to set up a hypothetical scenario designed to ridicule belief. For instance, the story is told of a tribe of cannibals who attacked and consumed a neighboring tribe who happened to be Christians. On a subsequent occasion, these cannibals were themselves converted [...]

The story of Zacchaeus climbing up the tree to see Jesus is familiar in Sunday Schools. On the surface, it is simply the story of a man trying to get a glimpse at Jesus from a better vantage point. Underneath the surface, this story has a profound message. It is a message that [...]

As the Pharisee and the tax collector went up to the Temple they both had a number of things in common. Neither had an issue as to whether or not God existed. They both believed in prayer. Both regarded God as a heavenly judge to whom they were answerable. Their culture was one in which [...]

One does not have to live very long, being in touch with the heartaches of life before we utter the cry: God help me! Whether it is an issue related to our church ministry, or a disappointment in a relationship, or a dashed dream, or a medical situation, at times in our lives [...]

In the course of ministry to people of all kinds we sometimes find that it is the most unlikely people that turn out to be the most responsive. Those individuals we think would be the most grateful prove to be the least so. Whereas the individual that is marginalized by the group is the one [...]

In this passage, Jesus presents the basic stance from which his followers are to live. Simply, our stance in the world and before the Lord is to be one of humility. This passage follow on Jesus’ teachings about taking care of “these little one” so that they might not sin, and continuing to [...]

I just got back from leading a group of my friends on a trip to Israel. Being in Israel I became steeped in Jewish rituals. These markers that remind Jews of their identity—eating kosher, daily prayers, clothing, Sabbath– were very prevalent. What stuck me so profoundly was the sense that being Jewish extends to every [...]