All of us—perpetrators or survivors of crimes, sharers or eaters of bread and fish—all of us need time away. There are many bits of scripture like this one, where Jesus withdraws...

David is the greatest king that ancient Israel has ever known. David is a sex offender who is planning to have Uriah murdered. These two things are true at the same...

For several years, I have taken songwriting classes. I enjoy the chance to play with words and find phrases and word patterns that describe ordinary human emotions. It is interesting to...

This story is not uplifting. David, King David, an ancestor of Jesus, has sexual intercourse with a woman against her will. He sees her, he takes her, and he sends her...

Who are you in this story? The boy who is kind enough to share, even though it may not be enough? Are you one of the disciples, more anxious about spending...

The second part of this week’s Gospel follows an interlude in which Jesus has again instructed his disciples to set out in their boat. Jesus himself goes off alone to pray,...

Mark’s Gospel is breathtaking, both in its pace and its content. We are still reeling from the story of John the Baptist’s execution when the disciples return to Jesus with an...

When I worked as a carpenter remodeling older homes, I was sometimes part of the demolition crew. As the name suggests, this involved tearing things down, breaking through old walls which...

Our scripture today is full of architectural imagery. The writer of Ephesians celebrates how Christ has broken down a "dividing wall," and is building a new dwelling place for God and...

This week’s psalm was quite possibly written during the time of the Babylonian Exile. A few years before, the Temple in Jerusalem had been destroyed by a foreign power, and Israel’s...