Our Gospel passage for today is hard, or at least hard for anyone who has a dime more than they need to provide the basic essentials of life. As Jesus was setting out on a journey, a man ran up and knelt before him, and asked him, “Good Teacher, what...

It is the late 12th century in central Italy, Assisi to be exact. Italy itself is not a united country but is made up of city-states of varying sizes and degrees of power, the largest and most powerful of which is the Papal city-state. Traditionally these various city-states had been...

Our Old Testament reading for this morning comes from the Book of Esther. This is the only Sunday in our entire three-year lectionary cycle that we hear from this book, so I am willing to bet that most of you do not know the story that this book tells. For...