I have made no secret of the fact that I was delighted by the outcome of the presidential election. The 2016 election of Donald Trump was nothing less than a catastrophe for US America, and though I had hoped that Trump would somehow “grow into the job,” it became all too clear that growth in this man was frankly an impossibility. He ridiculed his “enemies,” maligned many of our overseas friends, embraced terrible strong men around the world, refused to... Read more

I have thought and written about King Saul of Israel a great deal, including my little-read 2015 novel, King Saul. I have argued as strongly as I am able that Saul’ s supposed troubled spirit was not merely the result of some tragic flaw in the king, a moral depravity that too many readers have created for the man. I have suggested that in the main Saul’s flaw was in fact the prophet Samuel, the self-serving aging religious fanatic who... Read more

The presidential election has now ended, or better said, it has ended for a great number of the US American people, though the current president has yet to admit his defeat, however clear that defeat obviously is. And his defeat was quite decisive. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris received 306 electoral votes, the exact number that Donald Trump garnered in 2016, a victory he called “a landslide,” but Biden/Harris also gained in excess of five million more votes than President... Read more

I have long found it quite disappointing that this obvious piece of Davidic propaganda has become an anchor for the belief that Jesus, as an heir to the family of David, is representative of “the sure house of David, whose throne shall be established forever” (2 Sam.7:16). Early Christian commentators seized on this text and used it to shore up their emerging belief that Jesus would be ruler of all forever, because such rule was promised and predicted many centuries... Read more

For the third Sunday of Advent we turn again to III-Isaiah, that loose collection of oracles that has played an outsized role in the formation and understanding of Christianity. Today we look at a pericope that has been made famous by Luke’s much later use of it as Jesus’s inaugural sermon of his ministry in his hometown. As we may remember, the reaction to this homiletical offering was less than positive. I have preached more than a few sermons that... Read more

There has never been an Advent series of texts that does not include Is.40. The plangent opening lines, “Comfort, comfort, my people,” shape the very essence of the coming birth of Jesus and its attendant beauty and wonder. For those of us who adore the Hebrew Bible, and find glorious riches in its complex pages, this introduction to the document we call II-Isaiah, bears special meaning and power. After we have read the often dark oracles of the first part... Read more

It is once again Advent, that season of expectation and anxious waiting for the birth of Jesus, for Christians the long-hoped-for Messiah of the nations. Of course, for the merchants of the world, Advent is right in the middle of the most important shopping days of the whole year. I write this on Nov.11, and in my few forays into the world of commerce during these pandemic days, plastic trees are already up and Christmas music is pouring from speakers,... Read more

Those of us who voted for Joe Biden for president at the same time voted for Kamala Harris for Vice President. This was no small or insignificant choice, because Senator Harris is, all at the same time, the first woman, the first African-American, and the first South Asian person to occupy the office of Vice President. An astonishing and thrilling reality! I especially enjoyed a meme on Facebook that showed the portraits and photos of all previous Vice Presidents of... Read more

At long last, and after much anguish and fear, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are the newly named President and Vice-President elect. For those of us who voted for them, it is a time of genuine pleasure and nearly unrestrained joy. Last Saturday, when the race was called by all major news outlets—including Fox—I was reminded of my feelings in 2008 when Barak Obama became the first African-American president. With that election, many imagined that America’s long nightmare of racial... Read more

Since I live in California, a state that mails a ballot to every registered voter, my wife and I voted several weeks ago. After filling out our ballots—and quite lengthy they were, too—we took them to a drop box near a branch library to complete the process. I admit to being a bit sad that we will not line up with others next Tuesday, Nov.3, to act out our civic duty and pleasure in public with our fellow citizens, but... Read more