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Then a cloud appeared and covered them, and a voice came from the cloud: “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him” [Mark 9:7, NIV]. We’re approaching the tenth anniversary of the untimely death of the Reverend Dr. Peter Gomes, a distinguished preacher and Harvard Divinity School professor, and a former visiting professor…
“To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal?” says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? [Isaiah 40:25-26, NRSV]. In the text that begins with the 40th chapter of Isaiah, the prophet has been commissioned to perform a difficult task. Yahweh has called…
But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent, and come out of him!” And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying with a loud voice, came out of him. [Mark 1:25-26, NRSV, a portion of the Gospel lesson for the Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany, RCL, Year B]. A few years ago, I shared a series…
Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time: “Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you” [Jonah 3:1-2]. Because of you-know-what, our family, like yours, could not celebrate Christmas 2020 in the usual manner. For Jane and me, there was no packed Duke…
And the lad Samuel was ministering to the LORD in Eli’s presence, and the word of the LORD was rare in those days, vision was not spread about [1 Samuel 3:1, The Hebrew Bible, tr. by Robert Alter, a portion of the Old Testament reading for the Second Sunday after the Epiphany, RCL, Year B]….
When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi [Matthew 2:16, New International Version]. There are two ways…
Copyright 2018 by Thomas A. Robinson. All Rights Reserved. Reprinted with permission from Questions of Faith: Encountering Christ at the Point of Doubt and Confusion, by Thomas A. Robinson [p. 159-62; Mazarin Press, Raleigh, NC]. Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother: “This child is destined to cause the falling and rising…
Your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me; your throne shall be established forever [2 Samuel 7:16]. As I noted almost six months ago in another post, Walter Brueggemann, notable, contemporary OT theologian (Professor Emeritus, Columbia Theological Seminary) allows that the word of God never comes to fruition as we expect…
The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor and the day…
On a high mountain go up, O herald of Zion. Raise your voice mightily, raise it, do not fear. Say to the towns of Judah: here is your God [Isaiah 40:9, The Hebrew Bible, tr. by Alter] November 22nd marked the sixth anniversary of our Father’s death. He was 91 years old when he died….