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The story of Samuel’s call is full of important details that are pregnant with meaning, right from the opening verses which set the stage (verses 1-3). Here is where we learn that “Samuel was serving (...)

Divided tongues like fire!? Violent, howling wind!? It is one thing to receive a promise, quite another to be thrust into the midst of its fulfillment.  There they are that small band of believers who (...)

I write these lines just after hanging up the telephone. I admit to a frustrating situation. For more than two weeks now, I have been trying to get in contact with a minor local luminary (...)

Accounts of the Temptation in the Wilderness appear in all three Synoptic Gospels. The story in the Gospel of Mark is notoriously brief, consisting of only two verses (1:12-13). The accounts in Matthew and Luke (...)

John Milton’s epic poem Paradise Lost, a retelling of the fall of Adam and Eve and hence humanity from God’s original created perfection, is fairly well known. Much less well known, unfortunately, is the sequel, Paradise (...)

I wonder if we are drawn, in part, to Paul’s letters because of their immediacy and transparency.1 We see in them communities that struggled, as we do, with how to live together and live out (...)

Softly and tenderly Jesus is calling? Not here. This time it’s loudly and pointedly. This passage divides into two parts, verses 1-5 and verses 6-9. I treat them in sequence, but we will see that (...)

Psalm 63 offers minimal words for a minimal place where experience is anything but minimal. The Psalmist’s poetics here are like a minimalist painting that shows only one or two strokes of paint across a (...)

Psalm 126 is a community song of trust or confidence that skillfully employs metaphor to proclaim God as the one who brings joy out of sorrow, laughter out of tears, and good out of evil. (...)

The journey that began ten chapters ago is almost over: “When the days drew near for him to be taken up, [Jesus] set his face to go to Jerusalem” (Luke 9:51). Immediately after that, Jesus (...)