“Christ arrives right on time. . . . He doesn’t wait for us to get ready” (the message). The first movement of the gospel symphony is that God loves us; God makes the first...

God makes us right, gives us peace, brings us into grace, and offers us hope for the future. Despite our own best efforts and mighty struggles, God is always before us...

Though many psalms speak to our personal situation, most of the book of Psalms entered the canon as the songbook and prayer book of the community. If you imagine a procession...

When things seem too good to be true, we doubt them; yet often we have no trouble believing that things are as bad as we are told. Sarah laughs an old-age...

Abraham and Sarah first appear in Genesis 12, and significant encounters with the Holy take place in nearly every following chapter. In our reading the Lord appears as three visitors in...

There probably is no Christian teaching more confusing to us than the Trinity. I have heard people ask a thousand times, “Why can’t we just add a fourth member to the...

The Bible suggests that Paul struggles to exercise authority gently and humbly but also powerfully with the church at Corinth, whose favorite sport seems to consist of serious fighting. The Corinthians...

Now we come to a greatly disputed part of this passage. Jesus says, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore and make disciples of...

In today’s passage Jesus has told the disciples where to meet him for the last time. They worship him on the mountain when they see him, he passes on his authority...

This psalm, like the first creation story in this week’s Genesis reading, is a deep call to awe and wonder as we consider what it means to be human in the...