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You are the salt of the earth [Matthew 5:13]. As rich as the English language is, it is peppered with contextual difficulties. For example, in our language, the word for the second person pronoun— “you”—is the same for both the singular and the plural. That’s, of course, why long ago, Southerners came up with “y’all” and some folks from New Jersey invented “yous guys.” As y’all know, I don’t do New Testament Greek. But those who do advise that the Greek language easily distinguishes between the singular and the plural in its use of the second person pronoun. That’s certainly true for Latin, with which I’m reasonably familiar. In Latin,…

Hear, of mountains, the case of the LORD, and you mighty pillars of the earth. For the LORD has a case against His people, and with Israel He would dispute [Micah 6:2, THE HEBREW BIBLE, tr. by Robert Alter]. Dusting off some old notes related to this week’s Old Testament reading, Micah 6:1-8 [Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany, Revised Common Lectionary, Year A], I’m reminded that in these verses the prophet is describing what my Divinity School professors called a “covenant lawsuit,” a rare type of biblical narrative found only in scattered portions of Holy Scripture (e.g., within the writings of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Amos). It’s a scripture passage gift-wrapped…

For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there are quarrels among you, my brothers and sisters. What I mean is that each of you says, “I belong to Paul,” or “I belong to Apollos,” or “I belong to Cephas,” or “I belong to Christ.” Has Christ been divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? … For Christ did not send me to baptize but to proclaim the gospel, and not with eloquent wisdom, so that the cross of Christ might not be emptied of its power. For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are…

I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that has been given you in Christ Jesus, for in every way you have been enriched in him, in speech and knowledge of every kind just as the testimony of Christ has been strengthened among you so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ [1 Corinthians 1:4-7]. If you read last week’s meditation, you may recall that I wrote about the church’s belief that, following His death and before His resurrection, Christ descended into hell. Light descended into darkness. One of the…

Then Peter began to speak to them: “I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. You know the message he sent to the people of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ–he is Lord of all [Acts 10:34-36]. I remember vividly the first time I worshipped in a Methodist church. It was July 1968—the summer of Simon & Garfunkel, of Vietnam war protests, of the riots that rocked the 1968 Democratic Party Convention in Chicago. It was the summer Bobby Kennedy was assassinated. Truly a liminal moment for me, it was also the summer…

Now after they had left, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother by night, and went to Egypt, and remained there until the death of Herod [Matthew 2:13-15a]. We had a post-Christmas ritual in the household of my youth that I silently despised. On the 27th or 28th of December each year, Mother would pack away all vestiges of Christmas and have several…

And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, “Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger” [Luke 2:…

Look, the young woman shall become pregnant and give birth to a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel, which means, God is with us [Isaiah 7:14b, Matthew 1:23, NRSV]. Some years ago, a friend and I were engaged in a discussion related to Paul’s “Corinthian correspondence.” Specifically, we were examining the initial chapter of Paul’s first letter to the gathering at Corinth. Within that chapter, Paul sets the context for his overall communication. My friend had honed in on a particular verse that, depending upon your translation, reads something like this: But we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles [1 Corinthians 1:23, NRSV].…

Be patient, therefore, brothers and sisters, until the coming of the Lord. The farmer waits for the precious crop from the earth, being patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains. You also must be patient. Strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near [James 5:7-8]. Our Mother would sometimes repeat a story from her youth, a story that was played out similarly in many houses across rural America in the first half of the twentieth century. In 1934, a month or so before her 10th birthday in late November, her parents had given her a strict price limit—less than half a dollar—and…

A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots [Isaiah 11:1]. In September 1996, Hurricane Fran did “her thing” on North Carolina. As many of you will recall, Fran was so huge and so strong that despite “the Triangle’s” distance from the coast, the storm’s outer winds blew through our West Durham neighborhood at almost 100 mph because the storm’s eye was still offshore at Cape Fear. We “weathered” Fran better than most. We suffered no real damage. We didn’t even lose a tree. In our back yard, however, we did have a large pine that, while still well-rooted, was…