Month: March 2026

Palm Sunday — Matthew 21:1–11 This coming Sunday is Palm/Passion Sunday—the hinge of the liturgical year where messianic hope and messianic failure occupy the same frame. We will wave palms and hear the Passion narrative in the same service. Matthew’s Gospel, however, invites us to sit with a particular tension within the Palm Sunday reading itself—one that most of us have never noticed. When he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was in turmoil, asking, “Who is this?” (Matthew 21:10). The crowds have recognized something. They wave branches. They raise their voices. Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! (21:9).…

Fifth Sunday in Lent — Ezekiel 37:1-14 Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut off completely [Ezekiel 37:11]. There is a kind of despair that does not weep. It doesn’t announce itself with tears or collapse. It simply goes quiet. A friend of mine, a capable and credentialed man who had built a solid career, lost his job when circumstances shifted and his natural advantages evaporated. He told me about sitting at a stoplight one afternoon. The light turned green. He just sat there. “What was the point of moving forward?” The cars behind him eventually stirred him back into motion, but something in…

Fourth Sunday in Lent — 1 Samuel 16:1–13 “How long will you grieve over Saul?” — 1 Samuel 16:1 In March 2017, our youngest grandchild at the time, Everett — son of Blair and Sarah — was baptized at Trinity Avenue Presbyterian Church. It was a significant day within the Robinson clan. Pastor Katie had kindly asked me to assist with worship, so I would serve as Lector, offer the historic questions of faith to Blair and Sarah, and offer the baptismal prayer over the water. I planned to arrive a few minutes past ten. On my way into town, I decided to grab a quick drive-thru breakfast — coffee…

Now he had to go through Samaria. So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon. When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” [John 4:4-7] Last week we met Nicodemus — learned, respected, religiously sophisticated — coming to Jesus by night, seeking confirmation of what he already believed he understood. Jesus responded not with affirmation but with confrontation: you must be born from above.…