Month: July 2025

And he said to them, “Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions” [Luke 12:15, a portion of the Gospel reading, Luke 12:13-21, for this Sunday, the Eighth Sunday after Pentecost (Revised Common Lectionary, Year C]. It begins with an ordinary moment: someone asks Jesus to settle a family inheritance dispute. To modern ears, this might sound odd—why ask a traveling preacher to arbitrate a legal matter? But in Jesus’ time, it was quite common for Jews to bring their disputes to a trusted rabbi for advice and arbitration. Rabbis were expected to know the law…

Far be it from You to do such a thing, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked! Far be that from you! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just? — Genesis 18:25 This week’s meditation focuses on Genesis 18:20–32, the alternate Old Testament reading for this upcoming Sunday, the Seventh Sunday after Pentecost (Revised Common Lectionary, Year C). The passage follows immediately after that mysterious encounter between Abraham and his three visitors—one of whom may well have been YHWH Himself. In that earlier passage, Sarah has just finished eavesdropping on the divine promise that she, at ninety,…

But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things, but few things are needed–indeed only one” [Luke 10:41-42a]. Growing up at Olney Presbyterian Church in Gastonia, I often watched the deacons prepare for our monthly covered dish suppers. Half a dozen men would arrive early to wrestle heavy collapsible tables down from the stuffy attic, set up chairs, and make sure everything was ready before the meal. Afterward, they stayed late to clean up, fold chairs, and haul it all back upstairs. An uncle was one of those deacons. He wasn’t a complainer by nature, but now and then I’d hear him mutter under…

A Meditation on Amos 7:7–17 … but never again prophesy at Bethel, for it is the king’s sanctuary, and it is a temple of the kingdom [Amos 7:13]. Virtually everyone has heard of Isaiah or Jeremiah, those prophets with long scrolls and soaring visions. But Amos? Probably not. He’s one of the so-called “minor” prophets, tucked quietly into the middle of the Old Testament. His book is short, but his message still cuts deep. Amos was a herdsman and tree-trimmer from the southern kingdom of Judah—ordinary work, nothing priestly about it. One day, without training or appointment, he heard God call him to go north, to Israel, and speak a…

A Meditation on 2 Kings 5:1–14 Proper 9, RCL Year C The Expectation Gap Naaman was a great man — commander of the Syrian army, close to the king, victorious in battle. He was also a leper. His disease was the one enemy his military prowess couldn’t defeat, the one problem his position couldn’t solve. It was a servant girl — a young Israelite captive in his household — who suggested to his wife that he might find healing through a prophet in Samaria. So Naaman arrives at Elisha’s door with everything except an appointment. He’s brought silver, gold, festal garments — the currency of miracles, he assumes. He’s traveled…