25th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A, RCL)

The work of advancing the kingdom doesn't translate into fair compensation as we understand it.

Instead of glorifying the past, what if we treated the present as precious?

There’s a place in society for prophetic denunciation. There’s also a place for restraint.

Robert Gregg traces five scriptural stories as they were later understood by commentators—Jewish, Christian, and Muslim.

What if the agreed daily wage is forgiveness and eternal life?

I find more than a dozen military references in the Pauline corpus. In Philemon, Paul includes in his greetings “Archippus our fellow soldier.” In this week's second reading, Paul advises his readers to stand firm and strive side by side. The former Roman soldiers living in Philippi would have heard a reference to a Roman military formation.

The Philippians would have read "striving side by side" and thought of a phalanx of infantrymen.

Three faiths esteem Jonah, whom God sent to the city now called Mosul.

Who is this leader who issues this warning? Do we even begin to believe that he's the Christ?

We all live out our lives in the wilderness.

It's easy—from the comfort of my desk, where I’m healthy, well fed and securely employed—to experience a sense of "enough," as I wrote last week. It’s easy to champion compassion, justice and peace (what's not to like?), even when it puts me at odds with a few biblical texts.

As someone who is “first” in this world, am I in trouble with God?

What is manna? Is it a Hebrew pun on mah hu, or as Everett Fox suggests, “Whaddayacallit”? Is it mountains of sweet insect excrement, as proposed by some scholars, or the stuff of legend?