Scripture
Are all Christians adopted?
Paul’s metaphor can be harmful to those of us who have experienced adoption—and the abandonment that is usually central to it.
December 10, Advent 2B (Isaiah 40:1–11; Mark 1:1–8)
There is a clear distinction between being comfortable and receiving comfort.
Before and after the end (Mark 13:24-37)
Jesus speaks of end things as a way of contextualizing all the other things in life that feel like endings.
December 3, Advent 1B (Mark 13:24–37)
Keep awake, Jesus says, for God’s new world is coming.
I was sick and you visited me (Matthew 25:31-46)
Each year, about 1.9 million new cases of cancer are diagnosed in the US.
November 26, Reign of Christ A (Matthew 25:31–46)
Do we understand how our actions may shape the fate of a neighbor?
Frederick Douglass’s talents (Matthew 25:14-30)
When the true master returned, he found Douglass using his gifts for justice.
November 19, Ordinary 33A (Judges 4:1–7)
Irena Sendler, who smuggled hundreds of children out of the Warsaw Ghetto, was a modern-day Deborah.
November 12, Ordinary 32A (Matthew 25:1–13)
The Bible, so often used as enslaved people’s yoke, became their cry for freedom.
The path to clarity (Matthew 23:1-12)
Is it possible to know what is real? Whom to believe?
Signs of Mary Magdalene in John 11
“If John’s christological confessor is also the first person the risen Jesus appears to,” says biblical scholar Elizabeth Schrader Polczer, “that could make her a competitor to Peter’s authority.”
Words to remember (Psalm 34:1-10, 22)
Psalm 34 is like balm to the weary spirit and nourishment to the hungry soul.
November 5, Ordinary 31A (Joshua 3:7–17)
Such an unbelievable and far-fetched plan. And yet the people believe Joshua.
Both mother and child (1 Thessalonians 2:1-8)
Paul, speaking for Silas and Timothy, offers a layered metaphor.
November 1, All Saints Day (1 John 3:1–3)
“Children of God” is a name we do not earn and do not work for.
October 29, Ordinary 30A (Deuteronomy 34:1–12)
The nature of God’s judgment is not entirely clear. What has Moses done wrong?
The hidden God (Exodus 33:12-23)
The God of Moses is both intimate and mysterious, known and unknowable.
October 22, Ordinary 29A (Matthew 22:15–22)
I take seriously the absence of a denarius in Jesus’ own hand.
Delighting in whatever is lovely (Philippians 4:1-9)
Can we notice what is true and noble, even when it is also ordinary?