Raul Torres, a retired custodian, lived on a corner lot in south central Los Angeles. When his wife of forty-five years passed away, he transformed his yard into a memorial garden....

An elderly man at my church, a widower for a dozen years, endured chronic pains from aging, a drafty downsized apartment, a dwindling social security check, and several thou- sand miles...

My wife and I were driving through the desert on our way to the Grand Canyon. We navigated the two-lane highways crisscrossing the barren expanse when, seemingly out of nowhere, a...

Wilderness: barren wasteland; scorching desert by day; bone-chilling badlands at night. Wilderness is the territory of danger and desolation. Jackals prey in the wild; marauders raid from the shadows; nothingness extends...

The word advent means “coming” or “beginning.” It represents a new start. And so, with the beginning of Advent each year, we may find ourselves thinking about how things will be...

But in those days, after that suffering. . . . ” The opening words of today’s reading speak to the whole point of Advent and Christmas. The community for which Mark...

In these opening lines of Paul’s letter to the church at Corinth, we see the apostle’s deep desire for that beloved community. Paul writes in order to encourage the church to...

Restore us, O God of hosts; let your face shine, that we may be saved.” This psalm of lament cries for God’s presence in the midst of great distress. The people...

Come to save us!” This is the hopeful cry of God’s people throughout the scriptures. Unfortunately, in many circles—both within and outside the church—the word saved has a rather narrow or...

In the midst of the resettlement of Jerusalem following a long exile, conflicts arise among people who stayed in the land, foreigners who moved in, and those who return. Who has—or...