Month: March 2021

Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni!” (which means Teacher) [John 20:15-16]. I wonder what went through the mind of Death as it shook away the cobwebs on that first Easter morning. It likely had a strange, uneasy feeling that now somehow, something was different. Death had, after all, held sway for such a long time—a time so long…

As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples, saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and just as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here …” [Mark 11:1-2, NIV]. For virtually all of us here in Durham, there will be no procession into our church sanctuaries this Sunday. There will be no communal waving of palm branches. Our congregations won’t join together in “All Glory, Laud, and Honor,” although I’ve bookmarked a splendid 2013 Youtube performance by the choir…

Almost 35 years ago, two presumptuous “professionals,” each in his mid-to-late 30s—let’s call them Jim and Tom—entered Duke Divinity School from totally different directions, yet sharing a common question that is echoed in the Gospel reading appointed for this upcoming Sunday, the fifth Sunday in Lent [John 12:20-33, RCL, Year B]: “We would see Jesus” [King James Version]. As it was for the unnamed Greeks whom the gospel writer described as approaching Philip and Andrew during the last week of Jesus’ life, and who desired a private audience with the One who had raised Lazarus from the dead, who’d much earlier turned water to wine, healed the lame, cured the…

“Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him” [John 3:14-15]. In spite of the best efforts of several Sunday school teachers at Olney Presbyterian Church in the late 1950s and early 1960s, I neither profited from nor enjoyed our “Bible Verse” races. For those of you who are uninitiated to such thrills, these were generally time “fillers.” The teacher would glance at her watch, realize that while she had finished the lesson for the day, five minutes remained before the buzzer would sound to tell us kids that it…

The Jews then said to him, “What sign can you show us for doing this?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” [John 2:18-19]. A decade or so ago (I’m trying to be obtuse here, so as not to give away too much), a friend and I engaged in some good-natured “religious” banter. He wasn’t a particularly close friend, but we had enjoyed quite a few conversations over the years on a broad range of topics, including Christianity. Like me, he saw himself as a “thinker.” In both of our cases, I’m not sure that assessment was/is justified. On this particular occasion,…