Author: trob

“He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake” [Psalm 23:3b]. I don’t know about you, but I’m in a bit of a rut. I’m trying not to complain, but except for (a) my daily walk, and (b) a few hours during the past two Saturday evenings, when Jane and I have…

While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them, but their eyes were kept from recognizing him [Luke 24:15-16]. With a tip of the hat to my first writing teacher, Ms. Geraldine Johnston, at Huss High School so long ago, I’ve learned that writers should try to avoid the use…

Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you” [John 20:19b]. Some years ago, a friend called to say that I needed to “come over and see it.” The “it” was his newly completed residence. He’d spent several years in careful planning. He’d seen to every detail and now his project was…

They had been saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?” [Mark 16:3]. As I have joked with many friends, I had some serious concerns when I finally surrendered to Yahweh’s call for me to enter Duke Divinity School back in 1986. Chief among them…

”The Lord God helps me; therefore I have not been disgraced; therefore I have set my face like flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame” [Isaiah 50:9]. The Revised Common Lectionary appoints the same OT passage every year for Palm or Passion Sunday: the familiar “Suffering Servant” pericope found in…

”Mortal, can these bones live?” [Ezekiel 37:3a] For almost four years now, my favorite day of the week (other than Sunday, of course) has been Wednesday. That is because on Wednesdays, first at 11:00 a.m., and then again at 1:30 p.m., I’ve been privileged to teach two Bible studies at Carolina Arbors, a 55+ “active…

“Let there be light. And so light appeared” [Genesis 1:3, CEB]. Our earliest scriptures teach us that when God began God’s creative processes, there was an initial need to dispel darkness. Therefore, as God’s first command in crafting the cosmos, Elohim said, “Let there be light. And so light appeared” [Genesis 1:3, CEB]. The darkness…

“Come, see a man who told me everything I’ve ever done. Could this be the Messiah?” [John 4:29, New International Version] Once each decade, Oberammergau, a town in Germany’s Bavarian Alps, offers up its famous Passion Play, held in its Passion Play Theater. Since 1634, the town has put on the the drama depicting the…

“So Abram went, as the LORD had told him; …” [Genesis 12:4a] Early on Monday, as I reviewed the Lectionary selections appointed for the upcoming second Sunday in Lent (Year A), and noted that the OT reading was the familiar passage often referred to as, “Abraham’s Call” (Genesis 12:1-4), I couldn’t help but wonder, “Is…

But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not die; for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” [Genesis 3:4-5]. The Old Testament reading (Revised Common Lectionary) for the First Sunday in Lent is the familiar passage from…