There are more violent stories about women in the Bible – the rapes of Tamar and Dinah, for instance, and Hagar and her child being cast out into the desert to die – but the barren woman’s story has an icy wind in it, a deep chill that lives in the hearts of the group of decent men from which it springs. It is because they are decent men that the story is ice cold.  They bring her forward as... Read more

Zaccheus was a wee little man.  We sang that loud and proud in Sunday school when I was young.   We had no idea who Zaccheus was, but we loved getting to sing a song that made fun of a short guy.  Jesus may have been his friend, but we still got to call him Shorty. We weren’t bullying anyone exactly, and we were children so we were all short.  But the lesson, for those who didn’t grow tall and for... Read more

Another morning and I wake with thirst for the goodness I do not have. I walk out to the pond and all the way God has given me such beautiful lessons. Oh Lord, I was never a quick scholar but sulked and hunched over my books past the hour and the bell; grant me, in your mercy, a little more time. Love for the earth and love for you are having such a long conversation in my heart. Who knows... Read more

Your absence has gone through me Like thread through a needle. Everything I do is stitched with its color. –  W. S. Merwin Jesus told the story as poser:  There was a judge who neither feared God nor respected people.  A widow, whose case he had ignored, kept coming to him, needling him for justice.  But after a while he gave her what she wanted, saying to himself, this widow keeps bothering me, so I will grant her justice so... Read more

God of the sparrow God of the whale God of the swirling stars How does the creature say Awe How does the creature say Praise God of the rainbow God of the cross God of the empty grave How does the creature say Grace How does the creature say Thanks Jaroslav Vajda’s hymn, from which these words come, is loved for its inclusion of the creatures of earth and heaven in the spiritual life we humans share.   And he raises in these verses the... Read more

Hope is the thing with feathers That perches in the soul – And sings the tune without the words – And never stops  – at all. –Emily Dickinson Increase our faith, they implored him, these followers who had given up everything in their world for Jesus and found themselves stumbling in doubts and lost in muddlement. If you had faith, even as tiny as a mustard seed, Jesus replied, you could say to a mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in... Read more

There is another Lazarus in the gospels, besides the fellow who came out of his grave:  the other Lazarus is a fellow in a story Jesus told – and this Lazarus died and he didn’t come back, nor did he want to, for his life was full of misery.  His miseries, Jesus said, reached the heart of Father Abraham, who carried Lazarus to heaven in his own arms, and comforted him there. The story Jesus tells about the sufferings of... Read more

Who doesn’t serve money? Money, money, money Must be funny In a rich man’s world Money, money, money Always sunny In a rich man’s world Aha-ahaaa All the things I could do If I had a little money It’s a rich man’s world It’s a rich man’s world (lyrics from Money Money in Mamma Mia) Who does not spend time, in an agony of soul, over the bills, the needs, the desires, the dreams, the limits, of money?  And whose... Read more

Often, in public prayers, there are litanies of the great acts of God – who gathers the waters into storehouses of the seas, who covers the earth with snow, then melts it, who forms mountains, heavens, stars and planets – we extoll the mighty and majesty of God. And we do cherish God’s small acts, the intimacies of God, but never in a litany. We keep them separate, treasures that stand alone: God, whose word is in your heart and... Read more

Essential to relationship with God, is leaving home.  Adam and Eve left home for the wilderness east of Eden.  Abraham and Sarah were impelled to wander.  Jacob journeyed, alone, away from family.  Jonah ran away from God, to sea, then found himself inside God’s whale.  Elijah left Tishbe for the banks of the brook Cherith.  Ezekiel became the voice of exiles, enduring captivity in Babylon.   So essential is this homelessness, that the oldest of biblical laws speaks of it, in... Read more