Most of us know one memorable verse from the late story of Esther, 4:14: “Who knows whether you may have come to royal power for just such a time?” Mordecai is in effect telling his niece, the extraordinarily beautiful and secret Jew, Esther, that she has a real chance to save her people from the absurd and unpredictable king of Persia through the murderous designs of one of his chief henchmen, Haman. He demands that she confront the king with... Read more

As I have hinted over the past few months of my “Peripatetic Preacher” blog, my wife and I have been anxiously awaiting the final touches on our new Los Angeles home. When we arrived in LA in May of 2017, our prospective home was a two-car garage, complete with oil-stained concrete floor and wire-rack shelving, festooned with dirty rags, half-filled paint cans, and one filthy window in the back wall. I admit to being rather suspicious that this place could... Read more

As a man, I am treading on rather thin ice as I approach this infamous passage from the book of Proverbs. My NRSV titles this lection, “Ode to a Capable Wife,” a heading that could be seen as offensive in several ways. It should of course first be said that the italicized headings found in any Bible one picks up were not written by biblical authors but rather by the translators of this particular rendering of the ancient texts, so... Read more

I know, I know! I should have my head examined. Can’t I read a weather report? Do I never watch the Weather Channel? It is still summer—second week in September, and it remains hot in Phoenix, AZ, as it always is this time of year. Please understand that I know perfectly well that it is hot there now. I was raised in the city after all! From 1953-1964, when I headed to college in Iowa and its delightful snow, I... Read more

Last week the lectionary offered us a brief look at a few rather disjointed proverbs from late in the book, and I tried to suggest that such adages were never intended for universal truth, but were rather remembered as goads for further reflection, sayings that should tease a searcher into active thought. I also tried to show that too often such phrases have been used falsely as means for one human group to control another. Today’s text from Proverbs is... Read more

Last week in this blog I said I was going to lead a retreat for an unusual church group found in the unusual town of Los Alamos, NM. I have now lead that retreat, and am now ready to report my impressions of the event. I first had a morning in Los Alamos, a town I briefly described last week. It is a wealthy and fairly isolated place at about 7300’ in elevation an hour north of Santa Fe. Of... Read more

As we near the end of the long summer season, or in churchy terms the season of Pentecost, of Common Time or Ordinary Time, depending on your denominational choice, the lectionary collectors offer for our delectation a very brief look at Proverbs. Beyond the mysterious depiction of the Lady Wisdom in the beginning or the memorable portrait of the “perfect wife” at the end, the Book of Proverbs has rarely served as meat (or vegetables for you so inclined) for... Read more

In May, rather out of the blue, I was asked to lead a retreat for a church in late August. The United Church of Los Alamos, I was told, has a yearly retreat, and I surmised that someone who was originally scheduled to be the leader had had to cancel, and I was engaged as a substitute. Being asked like this is never a problem for me, as if I was some sort of second-best option. Over my long career... Read more

The afterlife of the 8-chapter “Song of Songs” is filled with rich and often hilarious ironies. We have no real clues concerning the time and place of its composition, but we surely can know a good bit about what various commentators have tried to make of it. Rather than perusing the long history of the readings of the poem, let me begin with the most recent employment of the book. Usually in the lectionary we get the song’s chapter 8:6-7,... Read more

I imagine any of you who have been reading this blog for a time have surmised that I am one of those dreaded elitists, a card-carrying member of that club that is banded with PhD, drives a hybrid car, listens primarily to NPR, and detests the current administration in Washington with real rancor and haughty disdain. If you have not gleaned this information from what I have written, I urge you to reread some of it; the clues are more... Read more