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His master said to him, “Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master” [Matthew 25:21]. Depending upon how one defines Jesus’ special word gems, our Lord offers us at least 30—perhaps as many as 50—parables within the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke). Curiously, the author of the fourth Gospel, whose narrative style is considerably different, narrates none at all. To be sure, in the Synoptics, there are some duplicates. And even where the parables differ, they often express one and the same idea by means of varying…

Later the other bridesmaids came also, saying, “Lord, lord, open to us.” But he replied, “Truly I tell you, I do not know you.” Keep awake therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour [Matthew 25:11-131]. When World War II ended in 1945, those who served in the armed forces were generally discharged according to what we’d now call a logarithm that combined two primary variables: (a) one’s length of service, and (b) the amount of time spent at or near “the front lines” of battle. The higher the serviceman’s combined value, the sooner he got a ticket home. Because our Dad had not been deployed overseas during…

After this I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands [Revelation 7:9, a portion of the First Reading For All Saints Day, Revelation 7:9-17, RCL, Year A]. When it comes to the final book in the Bible, I follow the lead of John Calvin, the important theologian in the second generation of the Protestant Reformation. Like Calvin, I avoid it. Calvin wrote a commentary on every book in the New Testament except the last. And while I set…

The LORD spoke to Moses, saying: “Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them: You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy…. You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD… [Leviticus 19:1-2, 18, NRSV]. Several years ago, a preacher friend shared a joke with me. He asked, “Why did YHWH give us Leviticus as the third book in the Bible?” I admitted that I had no idea. He retorted, “To discourage us from trying to read the entire Holy Text from cover…

But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, “Why are you putting me to the test, you hypocrites? Show me the coin used for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius. Then he said to them, “Whose head is this, and whose title?” They answered, “The emperor’s.” Then he said to them, “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” When they heard this, they were amazed; and they left him and went away [Matthew 22:18-22]. You’ve likely heard this, but W.C. Fields, the hard-living vaudevillian, was caught one day reading a Bible in his dressing room. When asked…

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 or pall has been cast over us. As our Holy Text laments, “Death and Destruction lie open before the Lord—how much more do human hearts!” [Proverbs 15:11, NIV]. How can such irrational hatred of a people exist? Was 6 million murdered Jews during the Holocaust not enough for the anti-Semites? How can privileged students at…

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 down from heaven, and see; have regard for this vine, the stock that your right hand planted. [Psalm 80:7-9, 12, 14-15, NRSV]. The Psalm that we number 80, from which this week’s Psalter reading is extracted, Psalm 80-7-15 [Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost, RCL, Year A], is in the form of a communal lament. The noted…

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 a land of milk and honey—to a land of promise and plenty—why did YHWH require that they wander around in the desert for 40 years? Why not just make a beeline for Zion? Why postpone the inevitable fulfillment? Then, still a number of years ago, as I read and reread the exodus narrative, while at…

… 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 receive more; but each of them also received the usual daily wage. And when they received it, they grumbled against the landowner, saying, “These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.” But he replied to one of…

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 18:21-35 [the Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost, RCL, Year A], we find that we are in the midst of the fourth of five discourses of Jesus. This week’s reading centers on mercy and forgiveness. Jesus has been talking about forgiveness. Almost so, almost immediately, Peter—he’s so much like many of us, isn’t he?—wants to know the…