The readings this week bring us to the first Sunday of Advent, the first day in the Christian year. We have seen how the texts address the question, “Are things going...

Yesterday we looked at Paul’s intercession for the Thessalonians, praying for their love for each other to increase. Paul recognized that this increase would spill over onto others. That’s one of...

Winding their way through the readings this week are the virtues of faith, hope, and love. They intertwine in our conviction that we are living in a time of awakening—a time...

Today in the United States we celebrate Thanksgiving Day. Sixteen other countries have a similar holiday sometime during the year. As a human family, the instinct to give thanks runs deep....

In our quest to live with hope, the psalmist adds an important piece to the picture. From David, we learn that hope is not an amorphous idea. Hope is trust. And...

We have a friend and conversation partner in Jeremiah. He gets us because he looked for hope the way we do, seeing through hopelessness initially but then seeing beyond it. He...

We write these meditations about two years before you read them. If you recall, two years ago hope was in short supply. Nationally and internationally, civically and religiously, it was easy...

Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.” We send our children to school hoping they will learn things that are true. We go to Sunday school and study...

Earlier in John’s Gospel the crowds try to make Jesus king, but he slips away. In truth, Jesus is already king—just not the kind of king the people desire. And so...

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German theologian and martyr during World War II, once said that the most difficult thing for human beings to come to terms with is the reality that we...