This year marks fifty years since my college graduation. I am astonished at this number, since those years in many ways seem not that long ago. But a half-century it is, and I volunteered to make a brief speech at the event in partial celebration that I have lived so long and that I am still capable of standing on my feet and talking about anything at all. I have entitled my brief address “Jacob at the Jabbok River and... Read more

I am currently in our cabin in the mountains of New Mexico and blessed with near unlimited reading time. As a reader, I tend to devour books in great chunks, and like nothing better than sitting in the cool highland mountains, surrounded by pines and aspens, covered by a crystalline blue sky, gorging myself on the printed word. I read on my Kindle or holding an actual book—either way will do for me. This trip I have four books with... Read more

As I said in my last post, I propose to tell a story of my own devising rather than explain and exegete in traditional ways this summer’s texts from the books of Samuel. However, a short introduction to the following story may be useful as a way of focusing on what I find in this tale. It is common for interpreters to read in the account of the rise of kingship in Israel a thoroughly negative appraisal of the desire... Read more

(Lectionary for June 3, 2018) And, as Monty Python were fond of saying, “Now, for something completely different.” As I have announced in this lectionary blog for some time, I have written a novel, King Saul(2014), published by Resource Publications, an imprint of Wipf and Stock. I doubt more than a handful of you have read it, though of course I hope some of you may have. It is a fictionalized account of the life and death of King Saul... Read more

(Lectionary for May 27, 2018) We are about to enter that long swatch of Sundays that used to be called “ordinary time,” a huge section of weeks that are to be found between Trinity Sunday and Christ the King and Advent, comprising nearly half the year. The preacher usually takes a vacation during this time and hands the reins of the church over to an associate (if she is lucky enough to have one) or asks friends to “cover” for... Read more

I have been privileged to go to Alaska five or six times in my life, but only in September. Though I have no comparisons to make, that month brings yellow trees, snow-capped peaks, and far fewer tourists. In short, I have found September to be a grand month to go. Each time I have gone, I have been asked to preach and teach in one church or conference or another, and that has been a wonderful way to see something... Read more

(Lectionary for May 20) I know full well that the vast majority of you will use the famous Acts 2 passage as the source of your Pentecost sermon, but I have in previous essays suggested my deep distaste for the raging anti-Jewish cast of Peter’s ancient sermon, as constructed by Luke. I know that earliest Christianity was in the business of separating itself from its Jewish roots, urging all of its followers to proclaim Jesus as the long awaited Messiah... Read more

I have always loved Greece. It has been described as one of the world’s largest outdoor archaeological sites. Nearly every bend in the road and every trek up a hill or mountain lead to an ancient significant place of one sort or another. I have been fortunate in my life to go to this fabulous country several times, and each time I find some new spot to delight my historical senses. From Cape Sunion and its wonderful temple in the... Read more

(Lectionary for May 13, 2018) It has long been striking, and quite disheartening, to note the continued male dominance I find in the church. This troubling fact is accompanied by no little irony. It has long been the case, literally for centuries, that women have been the majority of church attendees. The figure has circled around 60-65% in most parishes. Just look around your sanctuary this Sunday and see whether or not your eyes confirm this fact. And yet, the... Read more

“Here his mighty waters play On the organ all the day” Thus did John Keats describe his visit to the Isle of Staffa and its redoubtable feature, Fingal’s Cave, a huge chamber hollowed out by the unimaginable power of the sea over vast stretches of time. For millennia those pounding waters have created a vast cavern that resounds like the largest pipes of a natural organ, as Keats described it so well. Even as I write, I can faintly hear... Read more