On a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, we stopped off en route from Jerusalem to Jericho at the place known as the Valley of the Shadow of Death. Though probably not...

As a city girl, I sometimes get frustrated by the rural imagery that is used in our worship. I agree that green pastures and still waters can be good for the...

The book of Revelation delivers messages of judgment, but the passage that we read today offers a vision of peace, not only among humans but for the entire creation. This peaceful...

In Psalm 30, the psalmist weaves from illness to healing, from divine absence to presence, from individual to community and back to individual. This personal testimony of deliverance and healing leads...

At the beginning of today’s reading, Saul is breathing threats and murder. He is hunting followers of Christ to take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. (Saul’s plan sounds eerily similar to...

After Jesus directs Simon Peter to care for his lambs and sheep, Jesus concludes his conversation with some straight talk about the likely outcome. Simon Peter might die as a result...

Jesus’ appearance in John 21 encapsulates his teaching about what it means to follow him. He has given the disciples instructions about how to fish, and then he cares for them...

Waking up in my grandparents’ house to the smell of breakfast cooking is a favorite childhood memory. My grandparents lived in Philadelphia, where scrapple is a regional breakfast food. This pan-fried...

Can we go fishing?” my thirteen-year-old daughter, Ellen, asks quite often. Her requests are usually last-minute ones, but I try to go whenever possible. I am her ride, the one who...

Let everything that has breath praise the Lord!” (NIV). In 2020, the year of COVID-19 and the killing of George Floyd, “having breath” became an unexpectedly urgent issue. Floyd said that...