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Then the father said to him, “Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.” [Luke 15:31-32]. Over the years, I have found that often the most difficult passages of Holy Scripture upon which to preach or write are not the ones that are relatively unknown—e.g., the Outrage at Gibeah [Judges 19-20] or Jacob’s use of strange genetics in his bargain with his father-in-law, Laban [Genesis 30-31], but rather those portions of the holy text that are most familiar, such…

Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. So he said to the gardener, ‘See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?’ He replied, ‘Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it. If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down’” [Luke 13:6-9]. As you likely know from an earlier post, Jane…

And now, too, said the LORD, turn back to Me with all your heart, in fasting and weeping and mourning, and rend your heart, not your garments, and turn back to the LORD your God, for He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in kindness and relenting over evil [Joel 2:12-13, THE HEBREW BIBLE, tr. by Robert Alter, a portion of the OT reading appointed for Ash Wednesday, RCL, Year C]. The Revised Common Lectionary’s OT reading for Ash Wednesday is always the same: Joel 2:1-2, 12-17. Although its use on Ash Wednesday enjoys a long tradition, that use is not without contextual issues. For example, the…

And when Moses came down from the Mount Sinai, he held the two tables of the testimony, and he knew not that his face was horned from the conversation of the Lord [Exodus 34:29, Vulgate Bible, English translation, emphasis added]. Moses came down from Mountain Sinai. As he came down from the mountain with the two tablets of the covenant in his hand, Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God [Exodus 34-29, NRSV, emphasis added]. As many of you know, Michelangelo’s statue of Moses, housed in St. Peter’s Basilica, has an unusual “feature.” I’ve never been to Rome, so…

And Joseph said to his brothers, “Come close to me, pray,” and they came close, and he said, “I am Joseph your brother whom you sold into Egypt. And now, do not be pained and do not be incensed with yourselves that you sold me down here, because for sustenance God has sent me before you [Genesis 45:4-5, The Hebrew Bible, tr. by Robert Alter]. One of the longest stories in the Hebrew Bible is that of Joseph, the favored son of Jacob, the son whose father gave him the “technicolor” coat, the son who told his brothers that he dreamed that they would one day bow down to him,…

Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God …. But woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort [Luke 6:20b, 24, NIV]. Jesus’ extended “Sermon on the Mount,” transcribed for us by St. Matthew (see chs. 5-7) takes place—rather obviously—on a “mountainside,” with Jesus assuming the rabbinical, seated position [Matthew 5:1]. St. Luke’s extended recounting of Jesus’ sermon [Luke 6:20-49], a portion of which—Luke 6:17-26—is the Gospel reading appointed for the Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany [RCL, Year C], takes place after Jesus went down from the mountainside and stood in the plain [Luke 6:17, KJV]. Hence, the sermon in…

When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break. So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats, so that they began to sink. But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!” [Luke 5:6-8]. During our recent Wednesday Bible Study sessions, my Carolina Arbors friends and I have been discussing, among other things, how the Synoptic Gospels—Matthew, Mark, and Luke—are remarkably consistent and yet, if one moves through the text slowly, with a discernible…

Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things [1 Corinthians 13:4-7]. A few days ago, I was on treacherous ground. I’m not speaking about the dusting of snow that Durham had received. I’m referring instead to the writings of St. Thomas Aquinas, the 13th century philosopher/theologian. Knowing that the Lectionary appointed the First Corinthians 13:1-13 text as the Epistle reading for this Sunday, the…

All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips. “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” they asked [Luke 4:22] I remember well the delivery of my first sermon. It was May 1987. I’d been “posted” as a 36-year-old “field ed” intern at Saxapahaw UMC (Chatham County, NC) for the summer that followed my first year at Duke Div School. Nowadays, Saxapahaw is a chic little village, with trendy shops and cafes, catering to those who want to live in nearby Chapel Hill, but who can’t afford the zip code. Back in ’87, however, it was a sleepy little town on the Haw River, struggling…

When the steward tasted the water that had become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the steward called the bridegroom and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and then the inferior wine after the guests have become drunk. But you have kept the good wine until now” [John 2:9-10, NRSV, a portion of the Gospel reading for the Second Sunday after the Epiphany, RCL, Year C]. A joke circulated during my Divinity School days. No doubt it was first repeated decades before my study there (1986-89), and no doubt the riddle is still chuckled over…