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Isaiah 62:6-12 is the first reading assigned for Christmas Day. Like the Isaiah 9:2-7 reading assigned for Christmas Eve, the commentaries, appropriately, see little connection between this particular proclamation of salvation and the birth of (...)

Preaching on Christmas Eve is an exercise in strong, gentle truth. Luke’s literary masterpiece is “the Christmas Gospel” even in secular minds and hearts far from God. The children, candlelight, and carols reach into lives (...)

With these opening words of Second Isaiah (chapters 40-55), the prophet offers a balm for the festering wounds of exile. Against the prophetic backdrop of First Isaiah and the experiential backdrop of the people’s life (...)

This pericope is simultaneously rooted in the rich memories of God’s saving acts and mired in the muck of dashed expectations and the experience of God’s absence. From this spot the prophet, speaking on behalf (...)

Luminous promises radiate from this passage in Ezekiel. Only here in this otherwise alarming book is God a nurturing Shepherd who rescues and heals God’s people. The preacher may be tempted to treat these lyrical (...)

This passage plays a key role in the Gospel according to Mark’s understanding of why Jesus dies and what his death means. It describes the Christian gospel and the community it creates as utterly different (...)

In “Glory Days,” Bruce Springsteen sings of that high school baseball player who “could throw that speedball by you. Make you look like a fool boy.” Not being a gifted baseball player, I dreaded those (...)

During the month of October (Pentecost 18-21), we are treated to a rare opportunity–a run through the book of Job, in shorthand. Over these four Sundays, there are readings from the beginning, middle, and end (...)

Esther is a strange and difficult book for several reasons, first and foremost because it is apparently non-theological. God never appears in the Hebrew version of the book, which is the form translated in most (...)

Proverbs 31:10-31 is the famous poem celebrating the “capable wife.” It is often cited in praise of wives and mothers, and is among the most popular and familiar texts from Proverbs. Of course, “popular” and (...)