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And he told them many things in parables, saying: “Listen! A sower went out to sow” [Matthew 13:3]. Although it has been almost 33 years since the day the transforming conversation took place, I remember it as if it were yesterday. The time was Autumn 1987. I was a 36-year-old second-year seminarian at Duke. The…
”But to what will I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplace and calling to one another, ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not mourn’ …” [Matthew 11:16-17]. Folks in and around Jerusalem during the first century A.D., like folks who…
The prophets who preceded you and me from ancient times prophesied war, famine, and pestilence against many countries and great kingdoms. As for the prophet who prophesies peace, when the word of that prophet comes true, then it will be known that the LORD has truly sent the prophet [Jeremiah 28:8-9]. During the long, liturgical…
When the water in the skin was gone, she put the boy under one of the bushes. Then she went off and sat down about a bowshot away, for she thought, “I cannot watch the boy die.” And as she sat there, she began to sob [Genesis 21:15-16, NRSV]. Some members of my Carolina Arbors…
The LORD said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh, and say, “Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old?” Is anything too wonderful for the LORD? At the time set I will return to you, in due season, and Sarah shall have a son” [Genesis 18:13-14]. One of the dominant stories contained…
Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image to resemble us ….” So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them” [Genesis 1:26-27, NRSV, emphasis added]. For the swath of Christians who follow the church’s (rather than “Caesar’s”) calendar, this Sunday…
When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained” [John 20:22-23; a portion of the Gospel lesson appointed for Pentecost Sunday (RCL, Year A)]. As I…
Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that is taking place among you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you are sharing Christ’s sufferings, so that you may also be glad and shout for joy when his glory is revealed [1 Peter 4:12-13]. …
“And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever” [John 14:16 (NRSV)]. The Reverend Dr. Sam Wells, former Dean of Duke University Chapel, now “merely” the vicar of St Martin-in-the-Fields at Trafalgar Square, in central London, has written and lectured extensively on what, for lack of…
“In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?” [John 14:2]. One of the most beloved, and yet, as I attempt to explain below, misunderstood passages in all of John’s gospel is what I refer to…