Matthew

If all it took was a star to compel a person to Bethlehem, the Magi would arrive to see a multitude.

How is thankfulness engendered? By giving thanks in all circumstances.

Christians didn’t baptize Aldo Leopold’s land ethic after the fact. They got there years before his work.

“Many were coming and going, and they had no leisure, even to eat.” I think of the many lunches spent at my computer with a sandwich.

Perhaps the real lack of faith in modern society comes down to a lack of reverence for the people around us.

I have come to realize how mysterious a thing a seed is.

I have come to realize how mysterious a thing a seed is.

By the third century, the gesture of giving became miniaturized.

Two recent books testify to the difficult but hopeful work of forgiving in the most trying circumstances.

To be a follower of the one who promised that the kingdom of God is like a mustard seed is to expect a blessed in-breaking of peace.

To be a follower of the one who promised that the kingdom of God is like a mustard seed is to expect a blessed in-breaking of peace.

As we contemplate mortality and finitude, I wonder if we could treasure washing the dishes.

Let’s build shrines, Peter says. He doesn’t know how to respond to a mystical mountaintop experience, and he’s afraid.

"Why you even invite us to any of this," asked Richard, "if you’re just gonna humiliate us and throw us out?"

I eschew the danger of the river, but I know that it is where God leads me.

I know of a congregation that, for many years, provided a “living nativity pageant” in its community. The church is in the center of town and has an expansive front lawn. On a certain December Sunday afternoon each year, it would fill that lawn with live sheep and goats and donkeys, costumed shepherds and wise men, a gaggle of angels, an innkeeper, a manger, and, of course, the holy family.

The Magi's alien exoticism is an intrinsic part of Matthew's story.

I don’t know what a perfect first-century family looked like, but I’m certain that Joseph and Mary didn’t qualify.

If you happen to read the Message translation of Matthew’s beatitudes, you’ll notice that instead of saying “blessed” the word is “happy.”

We have, in fact, been given a simple code for living.