Scripture
In the Hebrew Bible, love is complex
Song-Mi Suzie Park shows that ahav is dense, powerful, political, and divine.
December 24, Advent 4B (Luke 1:26–38)
The traditional annunciation story bothers me even more than the word handmaid.
John the avant-garde (John 1:6-8, 19-28)
John the Baptist had no chance at being ordinary—but he takes his outlier status to new heights all on his own.
A Job who’s read Job
Poet Michael Shewmaker imagines a suffering Christian in Kilgore, Texas, with three unhelpful friends.
Mary’s special child and mine
I probably shouldn’t treat my own son like he’s the Messiah. Imagine the pressure.
December 17, Advent 3 (John 1:6–8, 19–28)
In the wilderness, trying to find joy can be like trying to make a fire with wet matches.
The eerie call of John the Baptist
His followers realized there was no quick exit from the discomfort of his words.
Are all Christians adopted?
Paul’s metaphor can be harmful to those of us who have experienced adoption—and the abandonment that is usually central to it.
December 10, Advent 2B (Isaiah 40:1–11; Mark 1:1–8)
There is a clear distinction between being comfortable and receiving comfort.
Before and after the end (Mark 13:24-37)
Jesus speaks of end things as a way of contextualizing all the other things in life that feel like endings.
December 3, Advent 1B (Mark 13:24–37)
Keep awake, Jesus says, for God’s new world is coming.
I was sick and you visited me (Matthew 25:31-46)
Each year, about 1.9 million new cases of cancer are diagnosed in the US.
November 26, Reign of Christ A (Matthew 25:31–46)
Do we understand how our actions may shape the fate of a neighbor?
Frederick Douglass’s talents (Matthew 25:14-30)
When the true master returned, he found Douglass using his gifts for justice.
November 19, Ordinary 33A (Judges 4:1–7)
Irena Sendler, who smuggled hundreds of children out of the Warsaw Ghetto, was a modern-day Deborah.
November 12, Ordinary 32A (Matthew 25:1–13)
The Bible, so often used as enslaved people’s yoke, became their cry for freedom.
The path to clarity (Matthew 23:1-12)
Is it possible to know what is real? Whom to believe?
Signs of Mary Magdalene in John 11
“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.”