Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany (Year C, RCL)

“Anyone who thinks he knows the orthodox consensus can always be shown to be wrong,” says David Bentley Hart.

If Jeremiah sounds a bit paranoid, it is because everybody really is against him.

Jesus refuses at every turn to do something important, the things his neighbors thought he should do when he grew up.

If Jesus is with the other guy, how can he be with us?

It is the nature of a creature—or toy, or movie franchise—to outgrow its context and move on.

Penny embodies the kind of love that holds onto hope amid suffering, redemption amid pain, and forgiveness amid hurt.

What’s up with Luke’s assertive Jesus?

There’s a lot of urgency in that single word today.

How would Norman Rockwell have painted Jesus' homecoming to Nazareth?

Self-realization is possible only in relation to a reality beyond the self.

In 1947, Langston Hughes published the poem "Luck." It could be read as an ode to love. It could be read at weddings along with 1 Corinthians 13, the biblical ode to love. But that would miss the point of both the poem and the scripture. 

The writer of Luke may be challenging his readers to accept even those whom the oppressed might reject, but Paul reminds us to act with love in all things.

In March 1933, the United States stood on the brink of ruin. Twenty-five percent of the population was unemployed; many people had not worked for several years. The situation was even worse in cities with major industries, where unemployment surpassed the national average.

Yet the real worry of the era cannot be captured by statistics alone. 

My dad's descent into depression

Chris Keith sets out to answer two questions. What lay at the heart of the conflict between Jesus and some of the religious authorities of his day? And how, if at all, did Jesus read Israel’s scriptures?

For Andrew Elphinstone, human selfishness and violence are not evidence of a world gone wrong. They show a person ripe for transformation.

Jesus, filled with the power of the Holy Spirit and still wet from his baptism, comes back to his home synagogue, publicly claims that he is the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophesy, and is praised by everyone. Then, within five verses, everyone in the synagogue is filled with rage. They drive him out of town so that they might hurl him off a cliff.

What happened?