Immediately after feeding a multitude with five loaves and two fish, Jesus makes the disciples get into a boat. “Make” is almost too gentle a word. The Greek verb suggests that Jesus compelled them, constrained them, practically forced them into the boat. This is not a pleasant invitation to take an evening cruise. Jesus puts […]
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 that reason, I am going […]
Last week, this week, and next week our first reading comes from the Book of Proverbs, one of the books of Wisdom literature in the Old Testament. Wisdom in ancient Israel and early Judaism included at least six important elements: knowledge, imagination, discipline, piety, order, and moral instruction. According to the wise men and women […]
Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world but in order that the world might be saved through him. John 3:17 To read the headlines about climate change would be to see the crisis in which we are currently living solely as a crisis of science and technology. Fix […]