(Lectionary Reading for September 11, 2016) This Sunday marks the 15th anniversary of an unforgettable Tuesday in American history. For on that blue-skied day, September 11, 2001, airplane hijackers brought down two giant and gleaming towers, gutted the symbol of American military power, and crashed in a barren Pennsylvania field, their ultimate goal of (perhaps?) the White House thwarted by some brave passengers on that fourth flight. The day also happens to be the birthday of my oldest brother, but... Read more

 (Lectionary for September 4, 2016) “Thou art the potter, I am the clay.” How many times have I sung that mournful tune in churches, camps, and conferences? Dirge-like, we all join our voices as we try to open ourselves to the potter God who, we proclaim, is the One who shapes and molds us “after God’s will.” Let me be honest. Often while I am singing (and sometimes swaying) with the assembled group, I am thinking of what I plan... Read more

 (Lectionary for August 28, 2016) “Without doubt my people have committed two evils: they have abandoned me,the fountain of living water, and dug out cisterns for themselves, cracked cisterns, that can hold no water” (Jer 2:13). I have been commenting on texts from the Hebrew Bible for nearly 50 years, much of that commentary oral through preaching and teaching, and over the past few years, much of it written through the good offices of Patheos.com. For the first five years... Read more

 ( Lectionary for August 21, 2106) Jeremiah was born and raised in a retired preacher’s home at “Anathoth in the land of Benjamin” (Jer 1:1). His father was the priest, Hilkiah, of whom we know very little. If this Hilkiah is the same one whom we are told discovered the Book of the Law in the rebuilding temple, and brought the book to Josiah the king for authentication, then we know a good deal more (2 Kings 22:8). The approximate... Read more

 (Lectionary for August 14, 2016) In 1630, John Winthrop, leader of the English group that would eventually form the germ of what became the USA, gave a sermon aboard the ship Arbella, sailing slowly toward the New World. In that memorable oration, Winthrop used a phrase that has echoed down the years of American politics. He described the future colony as a “city on the hill” (what became in fact Boston), urging his small, hopeful and terrified followers that they... Read more

(Lectionary August 7, 2016) In their 1977 book, The American Monomyth, Robert Jewett, a noted scholar of the New Testament, and John Shelton Lawrence, a long-time professor of philosophy, argued that America had birthed a new version of the mythology that Joseph Campbell had offered in his classic 1949 volume, The Hero With a Thousand Faces. In the earlier book, Campbell claimed to have discovered in ancient literatures a near universal story that he called the monomyth. In that story... Read more

(Lectionary for July 31, 2016) The race for president of the USA is fully underway, and the choice could hardly be more stark. On the one side, the Republican nominee, Donald J Trump, is a brash, deeply opinionated businessman, who has never run for any public office. On the other, the Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton, has spent nearly her whole life in public service, from her time as a governor’s wife in Arkansas, to her 8 years as first lady... Read more

(For the lectionary, July 24, 2016) It is very risky to read and discuss, let alone preach, the book of Hosea. Its central theme is both infamous and unforgettable. YHWH appears to the 8th century BCE prophet, Hosea (a Hebrew name rooted in the word for “salvation,” a similar rootedness found in the name Jesus), and commands him to marry a whore. That is problematic enough, but the prophet is further commanded to have children with the woman, children that... Read more

As a family, we used to love the game “fruit basket upset.” Do you know it? Quite simple, really. All are seated, save one, who shouts the magic phrase and a mad scramble begins as all search for a different seat. Of course, one person misses out, and in turn shouts the phrase while diving for a nearby unoccupied locale. It can be hilarious, if not a little bruising of egos as well as a shin or two. If you... Read more

I have in my long career as Bible scholar and theologian rarely been reluctant to enter the weeds of controversy that forever spring up in the flower gardens of religious life in the USA. From same-sex relations to military service to the use and abuse of the planet, I have had my moments of quiet reflection and public statement that have not always been received with equanimity by some of my listeners. So be it. If one speaks in such... Read more