(Lectionary for April 1, 2018) Last week my Hebrew Bible self wandered over to the New Testament to comment on the Markan story of Jesus’ immortal donkey ride into Jerusalem. Now today I have some thoughts about Mark’s amazingly brilliant and astonishingly odd account of the resurrection of Jesus. Let me be clear: I do not, and probably never have, believed in the historical reality of the resurrection of the crucified Jesus. The magical resuscitation of a corpse in real... Read more

(Lectionary for March 25, 2018) I know, I know! Mark is not in the Hebrew Bible, and I have almost exclusively directed my blog, now in its seventh year, to the First Testament, although I have on occasion addressed myself to the Book of the Acts post-Easter. But today, I am intrigued by Mark’s account of Jesus’ donkey ride into Jerusalem, and its relationships to the Hebrew Bible. See? You just knew I would get to the Hebrew Bible ASAP!... Read more

In December of 1997, I went with a small group of religious journalists to Israel and Jordan. It was a vastly different trip than my earlier visits to the region, since we went as far more than mere tourists. We were anxious to see parts of the Holy land that many tourists never see. My two former trips—January, 1978 and May, 1983—had focused on the usual sites one expects to encounter when in Israel and Jordan. Those of you who... Read more

(Lectionary for March 11, 2018) I am always very sorry to see this text once again raise its weird head into the season of Lent. What in the world can we do with this strange little tale about poles and snakes and sympathetic magic? Now, I know perfectly well why it is here; the Gospel of John grabs this story and allegorizes it to mean something about the crucifixion of Jesus. To whit: “Just as Moses lifted up the serpent... Read more

Just about a year ago, we, Diana and I, went to see my older brother in Louisville, GA, a tiny burg not far from the South Carolina border in deepest rural America. For many, a visit to a sibling is a fairly regular occurrence, but it has not been so for the two of us for many reasons. Bob is 5 years older than I, and five years, when one is growing up, is an eternity. He went to High... Read more

(Lectionary for March 4, 2018) Some years ago I stood in front of a huge marble monument centered at the head of an aisle, leading to the front of a beautifully shaped Christopher Wren chapel, strangely sited on the campus of Westminster College in Missouri. It was peculiar enough to find a Wren chapel in rural Missouri, but when I discovered that the chapel rested over a museum dedicated to the life and work of Winston Churchill, its presence was... Read more

(Lectionary for February 25, 2018) When I was in graduate school a hundred years ago or so, we were taught those famous letters, J,E,D,P, who were described to us as the four “authors” of the Pentateuch. Because these abbreviations were delivered in Germany, primarily by the pioneer Old Testament researcher, Julius Wellhausen in his formative book, Prolegomena to the History of Israel (1878), those four letters were the first letters of the names given to the supposed authors who contributed... Read more

(Lectionary for February 18, 2018) Here is an ancient text from the Hebrew Bible that all are likely to know, because it involves a common weather phenomenon that practically everyone has seen many times in her life. I refer, of course, to a rainbow, that wonderfully colorful arc of beauty that regularly accompanies rain showers. Rainbows are caused by reflection, refraction, and dispersion of light in water droplets, when the water becomes in effect a prism, dividing the light into... Read more

I have taken several short-term mission trips over the years, trips in which I have been involved mainly in building something or the other. On two occasions in Guatemala I found myself building cinder block houses. Well, to be more accurate I was the one mixing the mortar for the “maestro” who was the one doing the actual work of building. Or I was the one trying to dig the trenches into the packed earth into which some skilled person... Read more

(Lectionary for February 18, 2018) I am always glad when this wonderful text streams into view; fortunately it does so quite regularly in the Common Lectionary. It is simply chock full of great preaching bits that can energize any proclaimer to a deeper reflection. In this essay, I wish to concentrate on the very first two verses of the pericope (Is.43:18-19). Do not remember the former things, nor reflect on old things. Watch! I am doing something new! It springs... Read more