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Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart …. “And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” [Luke 18:1, 6-8]. For many years, I had what I think was an erroneous understanding of Jesus’ parables. That is to say that for the first half of my life, I thought of them essentially as scriptural stories in the manner of Aesop’s Fables.…

Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat what they produce [Jeremiah 29:4-5]. For many years now, I’ve long been drawn to Jeremiah, one of the least likely theological leaders in the Hebrew Bible. He’s from the wrong side of the tracks. A native of Anathoth, in the territory of Benjamin, Jeremiah had a lot going against him. Benjamin was the home of the first king, Saul. At the time, the Israelites wanted a king worse than anything else in the world. That’s what…

The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” The Lord replied, “If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you …” [Luke 17:5-6]. A few years ago, in “P.C.” times (i.e., “pre-COVID”), a parishioner shared with her pastor that her adult daughter was going through a difficult time. The woman asked if the pastor would be willing to talk to the daughter and he quickly agreed. Prior to the meeting, the mother filled the pastor in a bit. Her son-in-law had, for the second time, been caught in an…

Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Take these deeds, both this sealed deed of purchase and this open deed, and put them in an earthenware jar, in order that they may last for a long time. For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Houses and fields and vineyards shall again be bought in this land [Jeremiah 32:14-15]. In the late summer of 1977, one year after Jane and I had returned to Gastonia following my law school graduation, we decided that I’d take a short break from law practice in order that we might head down to Atlanta for a long weekend.…

Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then has the health of my poor people not been restored? O that my head were a spring of water, and my eyes a fountain of tears, so that I might weep day and night for the slain of my poor people! [Jeremiah 19:22 – 9:1] As I noted a few weeks ago, the prophet Jeremiah writes to a particular audience at a particular time in its history. The audience is the kingdom of Judah, more particularly, those who live in Jerusalem. The time is roughly 600 B.C.E. As we saw several weeks ago, when we examined portions…

I am grateful to Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because he judged me faithful and appointed me to his service, even though I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a man of violence. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. [1 Timothy 1:12-14]. Among the many stories told by our friend, the master preacher/storyteller, Will Willimon, in his provocative, challenging, and entertaining Accidental Preacher: A Memoir (Eerdmans, 2019), is that of a “sophomore dream trip to Europe” in 1966, which Will says he…

The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, “Rise and go down to the potter’s house, and there I shall let you hear My words.” And I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was, attending to the task on the wheel. And if the vessel that he was making in clay in the potter’s hand was spoiled, he would go back and make another vessel as it fit in the eyes of the potter to make. And the word of the LORD came to me saying: “Like the potter cannot I do with you, house of Israel?” said the LORD. “Look, like clay in the…

Has a nation given up its gods though they are ungods? But My people exchange its Glory for what cannot avail. Be appalled, O heavens, for this, be shocked, altogether, desolate— said the LORD. For two evils My people has done: Me they forsook, the source of living waters, to hew for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold the water [Jeremiah 2:11-14, The Jerusalem Bible, translated by Robert Alter]. Cisterns—artificial reservoirs (usually underground) for storing liquids such as rainwater—are generally unnecessary in North Carolina. Portions of the state receive twice as much annual rainfall as does “rainy Seattle.” Some elevations in our Smoky Mountains “enjoy” up to 100 inches…

  Now the word of the LORD came to me saying, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations” [Jeremiah 1:4-5]. Perhaps like me, you were “raised up” in a world that taught—that teaches—lessons in self-construction. To the extent that your own youth was anything like mine, you often heard statements like this from adults: “If you just put your mind to it, you can do or be anything you want.” Believing the wisdom in that statement, I studied hard through high school so that I could go to a first-rate college…

I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! [Luke 12:49]. The church within which my brothers and I were baptized and “raised up,” Olney Presbyterian, formed in 1793 by half a dozen southern Gaston County (N.C.) families—including the Robinsons—was no more than half a mile from our mother’s home place, the D.D. Grier house on Old York Road. During the 1950s, because of the proximity of the church to our grandparents’ home—it was actually owned by our great-grandmother, “Granny Grier, who lived there as well—we’d sometimes eat “Sunday dinner” at the Griers. We’d also sometimes stop by on Wednesday evenings after Olney’s…