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That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity [Jonah 4:2b]. As I have related from time to time, during the 50s and early 60s, one of the mothers…
“I cancelled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?” [Matthew 18:32b-33]. I’d wager that at some point in your schooling, you had a classmate who thought that the best way to demonstrate his or her “smarts” to…
The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,” and whatever other commands there may be, are summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no harm to a neighbor [Romans 13:9-10a, NIV]. About a dozen years ago, during a…
From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests, and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life [Matthew 16:21, NIV]. Back in…
“But what about you?” He asked. “Who do you say I am?” [Matthew 16:15] When the Roman authorities forcefully put down the abortive Jewish revolt against Rome in 70 A.D., they leveled Jerusalem, and destroyed the Temple. Some reports even say the Romans sowed salt in the ground so as to prevent crops from being…
The Gospel reading appointed for this upcoming Sunday [Matthew 15:10-20, 21-28, RCL, the 11th Sunday After Pentecost] provides us with, by my count, the third consecutive “withdrawal” narrative about Jesus. Two weeks ago, we learned that, prior to feeding the multitude, Jesus had attempted to withdraw, perhaps to process the death of John the Baptist….
When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear. But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid” [Matthew 14:26-27 (NIV)]. One of the harshest phenomena of the COVID-19 pandemic has been its effect on funerals and…
Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, Listen to me, and eat what is good, and you will delight in the richest of fare. [Isaiah 55:1b-2]. Last Tuesday, I had my “AWV.” For you non-Medicare…
“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls; on finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it” [Matthew 13:45-46]. For those of us sticking to the Gospel readings during this hot and humid July, we’ve been bombarded or blessed —…
Jesus told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like someone who planted good seed in his field. While people were sleeping, an enemy came and planted weeds among the wheat and went away. When the stalks sprouted and bore grain, then the weeds also appeared.” “The servants said to him, ‘Do you want…