Month: June 2026

Second Sunday after Pentecost, Year A — Romans 4:13–25 Hoping against hope, he believed that he would become “the father of many nations” [Romans 4:18]. There is a temptation, when reading Romans 4, to make it a meditation on the heroism of Abraham’s faith — on what it looks like to believe hard enough, long enough, in the face of sufficient discouragement. At first blush, Paul seems to invite that reading. He lingers over the obstacles: the body that is as good as dead, the barren womb, the absurdity of descendants as numerous as the stars. And Abraham, we are told, did not weaken. He grew strong. He gave glory…