Sometimes scripture throws us a curveball. We read it; read it again and still ask, “What?” Acts 7:58 is such a verse for me. It appears out of place, an anomaly...

This week’s scripture references many personalities, some familiar and some not so familiar. I had this image from the classic ‘60s film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, with Paul Newman...

What turns a group of defeated disciples (read: students) into a vibrant host of apostles (read: missionaries)? What sparks dozens, hundreds, and then thousands to adopt a Way of faith and...

When readers in 2017 read all of First Peter, we encounter the author’s apparent acceptance of oppressive institutions of his day: economic, political, and ethnic forms of slavery; inequitable relationships between...

This part of Psalm 23 may mystify the young child who learns this scripture by heart as a prayer. But as that child matures, the invitation to the Lord’s banquet of...

Sheep cannot graze in the same pasture all year, unless it is a small flock in a large, lush pasture. Sheep can overgraze, eating until they consume all the grass, including...

A professor from a developing nation asked my class what would happen if we lived into a “theology of enough.” Since coming to the United States, he had noticed that American...

Thanks to an early familiarity with the idea of Jesus as my good shepherd, the first part of John 10 resonated with my faith and experience. But the idea that Jesus...

In one of the most memorable of the great “I am” speeches of Jesus in John (I am the vine, and so on), we come to Jesus’ description of himself as...

The men’s mysterious companion takes bread, blesses and breaks it, and gives it to them. Their eyes are opened; they recognize him—and he vanishes from their sight. From now on, Jesus...