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Psalm 107 opens with a typical call to praise. All those who have been redeemed from trouble and exile by the Lord are summoned and called upon to give thanks for God’s steadfast love and (...)

How quickly things can change, and how differently people can interpret the same event! Last week’s reading from Acts 3 featured the people’s amazement at the apostles’ healing the lame man who had long begged (...)

Psalm 4 is good for what ails you. People are troubled about many things, but God ‘puts gladness in our hearts.’ Psalm 4 makes a good preaching text any time of year because it offers (...)

Psalm 133 is a Song of Ascents–a song for going up to a high place. For the Jewish people in ancient times, that high place was the Temple in the city of Jerusalem. One literally (...)

“This one (touton) God raised from the dead on the third day” (Acts 10:40). We appropriately turn this Easter season to the book of Acts, as it narrates the early church’s pioneering witness to the (...)

Today’s Gospel lection again competes for the preacher’s attention with another of the New Testament’s choice epistolary texts. 1 Corinthians 15:1-11 is the oldest of all testimonies to our Lord’s resurrection by one among many (...)

Giving attention to the text and getting at tension in the text: Sound biblical interpretation has always required careful attention to texts within their scriptural and historical contexts.  When I was in seminary, the primary (...)

This parable continues Jesus’ response to the chief priests and elders who had questioned him about his protest in the temple (Matthew 21:12-17): “By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you (...)

In my posting last week, I referred to Jesus’ ministry as “a gracious transformation, a divine reclamation, of the world.” This week (and next week), we see more clearly how this ministry of transformation and (...)

Modern interpreters agree: Philippians is the friendliest of Paul’s letters. But how friendly? Throughout the letter, Paul casts his relationship with Christ in the language of ancient love poetry. For those readers with ears to (...)