The fight over keeping the United States flag in the church’s sanctuary had been bitter. It was bitter enough that it came up in conversation several years later when I first...

When I was in my midthirties, I took a sabbatical year and volunteered for an organization called International Child Care in Santiago, Dominican Republic. My coworkers and neighbors there expressed surprise...

A friend of mine and I are going skydiving to celebrate our birthdays—his fiftieth and my forty-ninth. We will put on parachutes, be strapped to an experienced diver, get on an...

Psalm 139 can trigger contradictory feelings depending on mood, atmosphere, and circumstances. A God of constant surveillance can be unnerving, especially since we all have moments when we’re not proud of...

That the life of Jesus may be made visible in our mortal flesh.” That’s very aspirational and not easy. Tougher than seeing the face of Christ in everyone we meet. Jesus...

When we read of Jesus’ face-offs with religious authorities, our attitude toward the Pharisees can easily move from indignation to righteous indignation to self-righteous indignation. Let’s take a breath. Veneration of...

If “visions were not widespread,” then those days are like our days, perhaps like all days. Some folks find that thought disappointing, longing for a miraculous manifestation of God’s power, an...

A pastor of ours often would say “God is God—and we’re not.” The psalmist may have that idea in mind while musing on God’s eternal nature, creative powers, and skills at...

Paul writes that God has shone in our hearts to display God’s glory in the face of Jesus Christ. So, in Jesus, we get a glimpse, a hint of what God...

So about those disciples who walk through the fields “to pluck heads of grain” on the sabbath, leaving Jesus to endure the rebuke of the religious authorities. We can infer from...