“The bridegroom was delayed.” Of all the words in this strange and unsettling parable, I think those five may be the most important. The bridegroom was delayed. Everyone had gathered for a wedding. Ten bridesmaids, lamps in hand, ready to welcome the bridegroom and accompany him into the celebration. They knew what they were waiting […]

Jesus is walking along when he sees a man named Matthew sitting at the tax booth. That is how the story begins: with a man sitting. Matthew is not sitting in a neutral place. He is sitting at the tax booth, a place where money is taken, where empire reaches into ordinary households, where the […]