Author: trob

“Good teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone” [Mark 10:17b-18]. A thousand years ago, when I was in law school—actually, it’s been a mere 45 years since I graduated—we had a particularly frightening law professor. Dr. Robert…

He answered, “Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her. And if she divorces her husband and marries another man, she commits adultery” [Mark 10:11-12].   I don’t have the pincite handy, but St. Augustine once wrote, “If you believe what you like in the Gospels, and reject what you…

If the LORD had not been on our side—let Israel say—if the LORD had not been on our side … [Psalm 124:1-2a]. College football has changed substantially since my Wake Forest years (1969-76). You’d be correct, of course, if you replied, “What hasn’t?” As participants have grown bigger and faster, a whole new set of…

Then he took a child and had him stand in front of them. He put his arms around him and said to them, “Whoever welcomes in my name one of these children, welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me, welcomes not only me but also the one who sent me” [Mark 9:36-37, Good News Translation]. One…

The desert and the parched land will be glad; the wilderness will rejoice and blossom [Isaiah 35:1] This Sunday, the Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost (Year B), the Lectionary committee provides us with six readings. The OT reading is a curious one, Isaiah 35:4-7a, not so much because it lacks importance, but rather, due to its…

My beloved speaks and says to me: “Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away; for now the winter is past, the rain is over and gone [Song of Solomon 2:10-11]. This Saturday (August 28), Jane and I celebrate our fiftieth wedding anniversary. I remember—as if it was just last week—the moment I followed…

How lovely is your dwelling place, O LORD of hosts! My soul longs, indeed it faints for the courts of the LORD; my heart and my flesh sing for joy to the living God [Psalm 84:1-2]. This week—the Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Year B—the Revised Common Lectionary favors us with two readings from the Psalter….

Jesus said to them, Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. For my flesh is real…

Absalom was riding on his mule, and the mule went under the thick branches of a great oak. His head caught fast in the oak, and he was left hanging between heaven and earth [2 Samuel 18:9b, NRSV]. Not that it makes any difference, but I’ve long been less than comfortable with the notion espoused…

“Sir,” they said, “always give us this bread.” Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty” [John 6:34-35]. Have you ever had that eerie feeling that you needed something and yet, you couldn’t quite put a name…