1 Kings 17:8-16 (17-24) What It’s About: This is the story of the widow of Zarephath–or, rather, it is two stories about the widow, and her interactions with Elijah the prophet. In the first story (8-16), God commands Elijah to go to the woman, and commands the woman to feed him, even though she and her son were already starving. The woman’s faithfulness in providing for her guest is rewarded, as the woman’s stores of food were miraculously replenished. The second... Read more

Rodney Stark’s newest book, Bearing False Witness: Debunking Centuries of Anti-Catholic History, begins with a noble and needed purpose. He proposes to set the record straight on a number of slanders against Roman Catholicism, perpetrated by various enemies of the church. In doing so he seeks to defend the Catholic church, which he is keen to emphasize he is not a part of. But he is also seeking to defend history itself, from its excesses and mischaracterizations that place ideology... Read more

I was glued to my phone all day yesterday, refreshing the Twitter feed of the United Methodist Church’s General Conference. I followed dramatic swings and heated debates 140 characters at a time, through the eyes of those living through it. This is not necessarily a great way to experience church, but it was a powerful way to be a part of the experience, with a lot of immediacy to it, considering the small size of my phone’s screen. I watched... Read more

Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31 What It’s About: Wisdom! Proverbs is a lot about wisdom generally, but this part of Proverbs in particular focuses on Wisdom (personified, with a capital W) as a living, moving, constitutive part of God’s work and God’s world. Wisdom relates to the human world; she waits for humans in all their usual haunts, by gates and on roads, seeking their attention and inviting their fellowship. And Wisdom relates to the created world; here Wisdom (hokhmah, in Hebrew) is... Read more

Acts 2:1-21 and/or Genesis 11:1-9 What It’s About: The common thread through these two passages is language. In the Genesis text, we have the story of the tower of Babel, in which human hubris leads to an assault on heaven and on God. As a consequence, God scatters the people, confused their language, and removed the threat–which in the context of the narrative, God seemed to be taking seriously. This story serves as a kind of etiology for the variety of human... Read more

Acts 16:16-34 What It’s About: Here we have the story of an enslaved person, a young girl, who encountered Paul and Silas. She had a “spirit of divination,” which made her especially valuable for her owners, who profited by letting out her services to those who wanted to know the future. This was a common thing in antiquity, of course; slaves were exploited for their labor, and those with special skills like literacy, trade skills, or divination were especially valuable. This... Read more

Acts 16:9-15 What It’s About: Here we meet Lydia, an important figure in the first generation of Christians. Lydia was a dealer in purple cloth, which might suggest that she was somewhat well-to-do. The introduction to Lydia takes place outside the city gate of Philippi, which was a sizable city. It’s interesting that it was know where there was a “place of prayer,” even in a foreign city. What kind of “place of prayer” was this? A quiet, uncrowded place? A... Read more

Acts 11:1-18 What It’s About: This passage from Acts narrates an episode in one of the most urgent crises of the early Christian movement: the problem of gentile inclusion. There are roots of gentile inclusion sunk deep into the Jewish tradition, and there had been a sense in Jewish scriptures and practices that gentiles were, should be, or would be included in the worship of Israel’s God. These roots helped to feed the early Christian movement, which was of course an... Read more

Acts 9:36-43 What It’s About: The Acts of the Apostles got its name from the many deeds that it describes the apostles doing in its pages. This story is one of those; it is the tale of a miraculous healing/raising from the dead/miracle at the hands of Peter. The story of Tabitha–Dorcas in the Greek, we are told–has a familiar pattern for readers of Acts. The story is similar to that of Eutychus, in Acts 20, where Paul similarly raises... Read more

Acts 9:1-20 What It’s About: This is the story of Saul–who would become Paul–and his experience on the road to Damascus. It’s a dramatic story of radical change; Saul goes from wanting to persecute those who “belonged to the Way” (there is no “Christianity” yet) to wanting to join them, all in the course of a few verses. It’s not really correct to talk about this as a “conversion,” since Paul doesn’t “convert” from one religion to another, and anyway there... Read more