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A quick overview of the letter to the Ephesians reveals an overarching focus on the church: the saints who are the body of Christ. . From the opening greeting identifying the addressees as the saints (...)

As a commemoration of the dead, the festival of All Saints will always be an ill fit for the Bible.  Practices of necromancy (Leviticus 19:31, Deuteronomy 18:9-12) and veneration of the dead (1 Corinthians 15:29) (...)

Most of the people sitting in the pews would have no trouble naming Genesis as the first book of the Bible. Most would also be able to quote the first words in that book, “In (...)

Advent is a delightfully mixed message. It is a season of judgment: John the Baptist announces fire and then Jesus brings it. And yet it is also a season of joy. Psalm 122 is then (...)

The Gospel readings for the four Sundays in Advent, Year A, follow the pattern for all three years (A, B, and C). According to the over-all design of the three-year lectionary,1 the Gospel texts for the (...)

Following the genealogy (1:1-17) and a relatively long birth and infancy narrative (1:18-2:23), Matthew jumps ahead over the decades to the time of Jesus as an adult. He introduces us first to John the Baptist (...)

The language in this passage might, at first, sound a bit foreign to contemporary Christians, especially those living in urban settings in North America or Europe.  In these contexts, we know little of the patience (...)

In the Gospel for the previous Sunday (Matthew 3:1-12), we heard the stirring words of John the Baptist at the Jordan River concerning the one who is to come. The Messiah, he said, will baptize (...)

This is a very challenging chapter to interpret, much less to preach, in part because it requires that one be familiar with a number of related texts (Isaiah 7:1-9; 8:1-8; 2 Kings 16). Given the (...)

When a psalm is divided up, like the one for this Sunday (verses 1-7, 17-19), the integrity of the psalm is lost.1 Then the beautifully intertwined words of lament to God and praise of God (...)