Meditations

And he will destroy on this mountain the shroud that is cast over all peoples, the sheet that is spread over all nations; he will swallow up death forever [Isaiah 25:7]. Since I heard the initial reports of the hateful, evil attacks by Hamas on Israel this past weekend, I’ve felt as if a shroud…

You brought a vine out of Egypt; you drove out the nations and planted it. You cleared the ground for it; it took deep root and filled the land. Why then have you broken down its walls, so that all who pass along the way pluck its fruit? Turn again, O God of hosts; look…

He called the place Massah and Meribah, because the Israelites quarreled and tested the LORD, saying, “Is the LORD among us or not?” [Exodus 17:7, NRSV] In my younger days, I struggled with a teleological issue regarding the exodus of the Israelites from their captivity in Egypt: If YHWH’s intent was to lead them to…

… When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his manager, “Call the laborers and give them their pay, beginning with the last and then going to the first.” When those hired about five o’clock came, each of them received the usual daily wage. Now when the first came, they thought they would…

Then Peter came and said to him, “Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, “Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times” [Matt. 18:21-22]. As we come to the Gospel reading appointed for this upcoming Sunday, Matthew…

Son of man, I have made a watchman for the people of Israel, so hear the word that I speak and give them warning from me [Ezekiel 33:7, New International Version, a portion of the alternate OT reading appointed for this upcoming Sunday, the Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost, RCL, Year A]. I vividly remember an…

Then Jesus told his disciples, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it [Matthew 16:24-25, a portion of the Gospel reading…

When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is? [Matthew 16:13, NIV]. One of the core questions of Christianity is found within the important Gospel lesson appointed for this upcoming Sunday [Matthew 16:13-20, the Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost, RCL, Year A]. That…

He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” But she came and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, help me.” He answered, “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” She said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that…

And they said to each other, “Here comes that dream-master! And so now, let us kill him and fling him into one of the pits and we can say, a vicious beast has devoured him, and we shall see what will come of his dreams” [Genesis 37: 19-20, The Hebrew Bible, tr. by Robert Alter]….