Month: November 2021

Then he told them a parable: “Look at the fig tree and all the trees; as soon as they sprout leaves you can see for yourselves and know that summer is already near. So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near …. Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life, and that day catch you unexpectedly, like a trap. For it will come upon all who live on the face of the whole earth [Luke 21:29-31, 34-35]. Having some soon-to-expire—thank you very much, pandemic—“Marriott time” at our…

“What is truth?” retorted Pilate. With this he went out again to the Jews gathered there and said, “I find no basis for a charge against him” [John 18:38]. This upcoming Sunday, many of our congregations will observe a special annual liturgical event: the Feast of Christ the King. The observance was initiated by Pope Pius XI in 1925; its “Roman” origins being sufficient to banish it from some important segments of American Protestantism, notwithstanding the day’s important theological points. Pius XI sought to warn the church against the rampant secularism that he saw in “modern” society. He wrote that he feared all too many so-called Christians had chosen to…

Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who has promised is faithful. And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching [Hebrews 10:23-25]. Earlier this year, our Carolina Arbors Bible Study spent four months—March through early July—moving through Hebrews. It’s a New Testament epistle that generally gets short shrift in many of our congregations. One of the first things we learned is that the “Letter to the Hebrews” isn’t much like the other…

And the women said to Naomi, “Blessed is the LORD, Who has not deprived you of a redeemer today, and let his name be proclaimed in Israel” [Ruth 4:14]. As I mentioned last week, as we journey toward the end of the church year, the Revised Common Lectionary provides us with two OT readings from the often overlooked book of Ruth. Last week, we looked at the familiar “Whither thou goest” passage [Ruth 1:16, KJV]. We observed that Ruth clung to Naomi and determined to accompany her back to Naomi’s hometown of Bethlehem in spite of the fact that Ruth—a Moabite—might not be welcomed there. This week the Lectionary appoints…