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“To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal?” says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? [Isaiah 40:25-26, NRSV]. In the text that begins with the 40th chapter of Isaiah, the prophet has been commissioned to perform a difficult task. Yahweh has called upon him to proclaim hope to a people who only know despair. Yahweh charges Isaiah to tell the exiles in Babylon that Yahweh is going to deliver them from their captivity. He doesn’t say how, and He doesn’t say when. Isaiah’s task is problematic because his message must be delivered to the captives at a…

But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent, and come out of him!” And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying with a loud voice, came out of him. [Mark 1:25-26, NRSV, a portion of the Gospel lesson for the Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany, RCL, Year B]. A few years ago, I shared a series of difficult conversations with a mother of two children, one about 14, the other 8 or 9 [some of the facts have been altered to protect the parties]. In one of the sessions, the woman, whom I knew to be in her early 40s, said to me, “I know what happened to me was terrible,…

Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time: “Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you” [Jonah 3:1-2]. Because of you-know-what, our family, like yours, could not celebrate Christmas 2020 in the usual manner. For Jane and me, there was no packed Duke Chapel for Handel’s Messiah, no crowded church service on Christmas Eve, and no hustle and bustle with last minute gift errands. Because the weather forecasts for Christmas Day here in Durham weren’t promising, the extended family (children, spouses, and 7 grandchildren) gathered on the Tuesday evening before Christmas at–not inside–Zambrero’s, a new restaurant in the…

And the lad Samuel was ministering to the LORD in Eli’s presence, and the word of the LORD was rare in those days, vision was not spread about [1 Samuel 3:1, The Hebrew Bible, tr. by Robert Alter, a portion of the Old Testament reading for the Second Sunday after the Epiphany, RCL, Year B]. Quick, quick, think to yourself, “What do I remember about Samuel, from the Old Testament?” Don’t do an online search. What do you remember? If you’re like a lot of folks, you may think your memory is sparse. But I bet you remember more than you imagine. I bet, for example, you remember Samuel’s mother,…

When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi [Matthew 2:16, New International Version]. There are two ways to preach the story of the visit of the magi to the Holy Couple and the Messiah. One method–the more popular one–is not only suitable for children, its three wise men, three gifts, and popular Christmas hymn, “We Three Kings,” supply the pastor with a ready-made “three points and a poem” sermon for the congregation.…

Copyright 2018 by Thomas A. Robinson. All Rights Reserved. Reprinted with permission from Questions of Faith: Encountering Christ at the Point of Doubt and Confusion, by Thomas A. Robinson [p. 159-62; Mazarin Press, Raleigh, NC]. Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother: “This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too” [Luke 2:34-35, portion of the Gospel lesson, First Sunday After Christmas, RCL, Year B]. My close friend — and theological sparring partner…

Your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me; your throne shall be established forever [2 Samuel 7:16]. As I noted almost six months ago in another post, Walter Brueggemann, notable, contemporary OT theologian (Professor Emeritus, Columbia Theological Seminary) allows that the word of God never comes to fruition as we expect it [see Genesis: Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching, Pp. 181, et seq., emphasis added]. Brueggemann’s point can certainly be made about the OT reading for this upcoming Sunday [2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16, Fourth Sunday of Advent, RCL, Year B]. As we would have noted from 2 Samuel 5, in his early years…

The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, … [Isaiah 61:1-2, NIV]. Anyone returning to Jerusalem–or what was left of it–in the early years following the Edict of Cyrus [538 B.C.E.], would have quickly determined that pessimism, even hopelessness, had taken root. Yes, there was some cause for relief. The Persians, led by…

On a high mountain go up, O herald of Zion. Raise your voice mightily, raise it, do not fear. Say to the towns of Judah: here is your God [Isaiah 40:9, The Hebrew Bible, tr. by Alter] November 22nd marked the sixth anniversary of our Father’s death. He was 91 years old when he died. Married to our Mother for almost 72 years, he enjoyed excellent health for most of his life. For his final five years, however, he lived in exile. That is to say that–because of advanced dementia–although he “resided” in Durham, he felt as if he had been taken to a far-off land that he didn’t recognize…

How long, Lord God Almighty, will your anger smolder against the prayers of your people? You have fed them with the bread of tears; you have made them drink tears by the bowlful [Psalm 80:4-5]. Patience has never been my long suit. Whether it was high school basketball, where Todd and I sat on the end of the bench with close friend, Robert, waiting for our team to fall sufficiently far behind so that those of us on the “second string” could do no real damage to the cause, whether it was Jane’s and my inability to wait two additional years for graduation–talking both sets of parents into consenting to…