“This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” These are the words God says to confirm Jesus’ identity at his baptism in Matthew 3:17. After Jesus is...

One of the Hebrew words for sin is sometimes translated as “to miss the mark.” The word in Exodus 24:12 translated in the NRSVUE as instruction can also be a verb...

The phrase “cleverly devised myths” in verse 16 is provocative. It suggests that Peter is arguing that he didn’t just make up a story about the Transfiguration. But the phrase sophizo...

Many psalms are attributed to David, and even more reflect the experience of a king anointed by God. Psalm 1 sets up the “wheat and chaff” metaphor. Psalm 2 continues the...

A lighthouse is a powerful lamp that guides people safely to shore. Most people experience it from a far distance, spotting it many nautical miles away from the rocks. When sailors...

God has a way of bringing the most unlikely people together throughout scripture, but this one really takes the cake. God joins Moses, the leader of the ancient Hebrews; Elijah, a...

Reality is elusive in Exodus 24. The thick descriptions of God are paradoxical. At first, God’s presence is described as a cloud covering the mountain, but the very next verse references...

After talking about salt and light, Jesus returns us to righteousness. Is righteousness just a state of being? Or is righteousness about what we do in the world? This passage seems...

By this point in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus is well into the Sermon on the Mount. He gives the well-known instruction to be salt and light. A master of metaphors,...

My wife and I have a running joke. If there is a breakdown in communication, one of us will say to the other, “This would be a lot easier if you...