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In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.” … Then Mary said, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her [Luke 1:26-28, 38, a portion of the Gospel reading appointed for the Fourth Sunday of Advent, RCL, Year B]. Gabriel looked at the girl and wondered how this young…

The spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners; …. [Isaiah 61:1]. At first blush, twenty-first century Christians like you and me might wonder why the Revised Common Lectionary Committee chose, with the omission of some text, the first verses of Isaiah 61 as the OT reading for the Third Sunday of Advent [Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11, Year B]. To be sure, the text is beautifully poetic. It speaks of bringing “good news” — literally, “the gospel” —…

Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. He proclaimed, “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit” [Mark 1: 6-8]. Each year, as I approach the Gospel reading for the second week of Advent [Mark 1:1-8, the Second Sunday of Advent, RCL, Year B], which is always devoted to “the Baptizer,” I wonder anew what made John—what made John’s particular kind of baptism—so…

There is no one who calls on your name, or attempts to take hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us, and have delivered us into the hand of our iniquity. Yet, O LORD, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand. Do not be exceedingly angry, O LORD, and do not remember iniquity forever. Now consider, we are all your people. [Isaiah 64:7-9]. The OT lesson appointed for the First Sunday of Advent, Isaiah 64:1-9 [Revised Common Lectionary, Year B] is located within what many OT scholars call “Third Isaiah” (Chapters 56-66). Many…

When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left [Matthew 25:31-33]. As we approach the difficult Gospel reading assigned for the final Sunday in the current church year, Matthew 25:31-46 [Christ the King Sunday, RCL, Year A], we find ourselves amidst an overall theme of judgment. To be sure, the theme of judgment is not…

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…