In today’s reading, Matthew presents a comic scene in which Jesus bests the religious experts and shows the limitations of any narrow, literal reading of scripture. In the part we discussed...

Throughout Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus is perceived as a threat by the Pharisees. They confront him with question after question designed to stump and discredit him. Jesus, of course, is well versed...

“They will know we are Christians by our love.” I think about this line often and wonder what folks would think if they only had one interaction with me. Would they...

I have a colleague who would end her emails with this invitation in her signature: Make it count! In a way, that is also the invitation to us in this portion...

As the daughter of a United Methodist pastor, the concept of home and dwelling has come to mean for me less about land and place and more about people. Our family...

In many ways, the COVID-19 pandemic led us into our own time of wilderness wandering and wondering. As we experienced the shutting down and reopening of our places of worship, work,...

I am not much of a hiker, but the trails I have explored here in the Pacific Northwest have stirred in me wonder and awe. Reading the first verse of today’s...

The implicit question in this exchange, “Whose engraving is this on the coin?” comes back to us as it did to those listening to Jesus. Just as it did when farmer...

They were plotting to entrap Jesus. The Pharisees sent their disciples to him and asked him a question about paying taxes to the emperor. As Jesus so often does, he used...

Once God commits to Moses to do what he has asked, Moses pleads, “Please show me your glorious presence” (CEB). The back-and-forth dialogue between Moses and God before verse eighteen feels...