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When people in authority challenged Jesus, he often responded to their challenges with a parable. If those challenging him didn’t get the first parable, he’d give them a second one. Today’s Gospel lection is just (...)

When Jesus taught (as often as not) he taught in parables. He did this in part to meet the “prophetic” declaration of Psalm 78 to open the mouth in parables  and “dark sayings of old” (...)

Today’s gospel lesson is a hard one for those of us who live  in a culture whose motto “live and let live” quite often replaces the much more challenging work of mending broken lives by (...)

Large transitions disorient us. Moving, changing jobs, personal transitions…all of these mix up our lives by taking us out of our patterns. Such transitions are all the more disorienting when they are forced upon us. (...)

Like many other selections from the lectionary, Isaiah 55:1-5 is a small unit that, while relatively self-contained, has connections both to what precedes and what follows (preachers beware!). Chapter 55 as a whole is the (...)

Talk about treasure in a field! Some weeks it can seem that the appointed Gospel yields slim pickings, but this week, we have five rich parables with which to work. For those of you who (...)

Today’s Old Testament lesson is the famous text where Solomon asks God for wisdom. Somewhat oddly, the lection begins and ends in mid-paragraph (according to NRSV and NIV), and it might be better to include (...)

For me at least, this is one of those biblical texts that cannot be read without hearing music. In the midst of puzzling over the visions and sayings of Zechariah, it comes as a refreshing (...)

It is easy to miss the wonder of a well-known biblical passage. This is certainly the case with the opening creation narrative in Genesis 1:1-2:4a. Few passages have endured as much scrutiny for a variety (...)

Sermons on this passage require preachers to inject some storytelling into their messages. It’s one of the lectionary’s more bizarre selections, and that’s no slight honor. The main problem is that the action described in (...)