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David was anointed to be king three times. The first time, he was anointed by the prophet Samuel, secretly, and at God’s direction (1 Samuel 16:1 — 13). That divine designation and election was prior (...)

The second half of 1 Samuel recounts the contest between Saul and David. Samuel anointed David in 1 Samuel 16, and throughout the rest of the book, all sorts of people endorse David as the (...)

As soon as they say, “It’s not about the money!” you know the money matters. And surely as the summer media will continue to obsess on the economy, the Pauline lesson for the fourth Sunday (...)

The small poetic book of Lamentations was composed during the fall of Jerusalem to the invading Babylonian armies in the early years of the sixth century BCE. Ongoing Jewish tradition enshrines this history by reading (...)

What really happened? Did Jesus perform a miracle, controlling the forces of nature by a simple word? Or is this a simple story of a stormy day on the lake that the gospel writer inflated (...)

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 (...)

For the early church depicted in Acts, the resurrection of Christ is less a creedal article of individual faith and hope than a creative force of community formation and fellowship. According to our text summarizing (...)

Ask a non–Christian–even ask some Christians–what the point of Christian faith is. For many, it is “Jesus came so that I’ll live forever.” In the Gospels, however, Jesus never promises that he will be crucified (...)

For additional lectionary resources on the assigned texts for Reformation Sunday, please see the Craft of Preaching articles. The two stories of Matthew 22:34-46 conclude an entire narrative section focused on the Jerusalem leadership in (...)

You can currently purchase online both a book, the title of which is Jesus is Not a Republican, and a T-shirt claiming that “Jesus Votes Republican.” And, of course, you can find the converse claims (...)