In the Lectionary

The story of the golden calf is a parody of Israelite idolatry.

Jesus' parable of the so-called "wicked tenant farmers" is a textbook illustration—a parody, even—of the economic and political dynamics of empire.

Ezekiel steps right into the middle of a group of people busy at that most ancient of activities, going back to Eden: the blame game.

The Philippians would have read "striving side by side" and thought of a phalanx of infantrymen.

Church folks will not always agree—nor should we.

What comes first—your actions or your beliefs? Here's Paul's answer: neither one. What comes first is the love of God.

While this is not the exuberant rhetorical surplus we find in 1 Corinthians 13, love is still Paul's guiding principle.

Bodies matter for Paul. And they matter for Christian discipleship. Paul foregrounds the human body as critical for the Christian response to God's mercy.

Joseph knows what he is seeing. His brothers do not.

Our age is tremendously excited about the visual. Yet here is Paul, firm in the conviction that "faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ."

The people are hungry. Jesus' solution is even more improbable than the disciples' solution.

Six words of scripture always transport me to an amazing place: “The kingdom of heaven is like . . .”

We all see weeds, but we shouldn't make it our business to separate them.

Jesus' parable presents not differences between people but different kinds of terrain within each of us.

We learn to be Christian not when we succeed at perfection but when we realize that we will always fail.

Could Abraham know that God is testing him?

Jeremiah has great resolve—at least in retrospect.

Go and make disciples? More like wait and welcome converts.

We may experience division in our cries to God, hearing only what’s loud right next to us. But God hears us as one human family, crying out for blessing.

In many ways, the Ascension story is too literal for our postmodern sensibilities. We know that the space station is circling the globe just above the clouds.