I think it is important to read Scripture in light of Scripture. Too often we Christians, even progressive ones, read passages of Scripture in isolation from other Scripture and come up with very mistaken interpretations as a result. I believe it is much more helpful to follow the lead of...

Our reading from Deuteronomy, chapter 34:1-12, marks the end of the book and the end of the Torah, the first five books of the Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. These five books tell the story of the formation of the people of Israel: their call into being by...

Then he said to them, “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” Matthew 22:21 Before we get into what these well-known and well-worn words might mean, I want to set the stage for you. I want, as always,...

I have to be quite honest. There is really nothing about this parable from Matthew that I like and is one of the reasons that I struggle with the Gospel of Matthew. “The weeping and gnashing of teeth” is one of my least favorite scriptural phrases and appears in Matthew...

You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me Exodus 20:5 I am not sure if I ever came into...

The Parable of the Good Samaritan. I suspect that everyone here this morning has heard this parable before, or at the very least heard the phrase “Good Samaritan.” It is a well-loved and well-worn story. Robbers rob and gravely injure a traveler, most likely a Jewish man as Jesus does...

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life.” John...

  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...

Today is the Feast of the Transfiguration, which falls on August 6th every year, though we usually only celebrate it if it falls on a Sunday, as it has this year. It isn’t the only day in the year that we hear the story of Jesus’ transfiguration, however. We also...

“The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make...