16th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C, RCL)

“If John’s christological confessor is also the first person the risen Jesus appears to,” says biblical scholar Elizabeth Schrader Polczer, “that could make her a competitor to Peter’s authority.”

The prankster is God, through whom all things are possible.

The world is overwhelming, and we need nourishment.

I wonder whether Martha could feel cared for by Jesus.

There’s just one oak left at Mamre.

To say creation is ex nihilo is to say that divine love is the only power at work in the creation of everything.

Sarah wasn’t the first member of her household to laugh at God.

Hart thunders like Amos against cruel, incoherent religion.

Jesus has a zeal against the human willingness to turn wealth into an idol.

Jesus is talking to two different audiences.

Let me cut to the chase, brothers and sisters. Is this what you think living in Christ looks like?

This is a story some of us need to hear in a new way.

This is one of those stories that provokes howls of rage.

They use the conventions of Jewish resistance poetry to challenge Roman occupation.

And are we practicing it?

Hans Boersma sees scripture as more open to imaginative reading than our modern methods permit. The key is faith in Christ.

Do we really want God to live with us in a poisoned and degraded world?