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“Sing a new world into being. Sound a bold and hopeful theme. Find a tune for silent yearnings. Lend your voice and dare to dream,” begins a hymn by Mary Louise Bringle. The hymn ends (...)

The believers to whom Peter writes have, in his view, two interrelated problems: they doubt the coming of Christ and they are drawn to immoral living. Peter wants to remind (1:12) those believers who “have (...)

First of all, read Hebrews 9:1-10 for yourself and include these verses as part of your exposition of the Hebrews 9:11-14 text for this week. The description of the Ark of the Covenant is something (...)

The second chapter of James offers a far-reaching treatment of the life of faith. The passage begins with a question about what faith actually is (James 2:1). In reflecting on the first chapter of James (...)

Last Sunday’s Psalm lection (34:1-8) contained some of the typical features of individual Psalms of Thanksgiving, where a worshiper invites others to praise God (verses 1-3) for an act of personal deliverance (verses 4, 6). (...)

The Second Lesson for this Sunday is the first in a series of readings from the Letter to the Ephesians extending over seven Sundays. Of the total verses in Ephesians (155), nearly half (75 of (...)

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 (...)

“The foreigners who join themselves to the Lord” and “eunuchs who keep my [the Lord’s] Sabbaths…and hold fast my covenants” are the particular marks of the salvation and deliverance that God will perform and reveal. (...)

The main point of Matthew’s version of the parable of the sower is to offer an explanation. In order to see this, one needs to review the narrative logic of the entire Gospel to this (...)

We ought to first note that the lectionary this week has skipped over I Peter 2.1-18. The very important passage in I Peter 2.4-10 will be next week’s text. The creators of the lectionary have (...)