At this juncture, David is a big winner: king of Israel and Judah, conqueror of the mighty Philistines, with the captured city of Jerusalem his capital. Living in “a house of...

This week’s Bible readings seem haphazard: David and Nathan (not that story), blessings on Roman Christians, Gabriel’s annunciation to Mary, and Mary’s song. And the Mary stories aren’t even in chronological...

The religious leaders ask John the same question three times. “Who are you?” They say it over and over again. It’s clear that the priests and Levites sent by Jewish rulers...

These two verses serve as a crescendo to the verses of Isaiah we have examined earlier this week. Isaiah 61 tells of God’s mighty work among the people and the justice...

“It was like we had been dreaming” (ceb). Sit with this phrase for a moment. We see dreams throughout the Bible, most prominently in Joseph’s interaction with Pharaoh, but they are...

It can be easy, especially when we live in comfortable surroundings, to let the words of the prophets become disconnected from our tangible, grounded realities. That’s why this passage from Isaiah...

Advent is a time of reflection, but it’s also a time of tensions and uncertainty. In its quiet and dark, hope and expectation for new life begin to rise. Amid this...

Today’s passage is one of those where it can be hard to place ourselves in the mind-set of the people who first heard it. We can try our best, but it’s...

There’s a certain kind of poetry in the repetition and simplicity of John 1 as the Gospel writer lays the groundwork for the world-bending story to follow. In today’s passage, we’re...

A plaintive cry for forgiveness and restoration of God’s presence seeps like tears through Psalm 85. The psalmist begins by remembering and acknowledging God’s material and spiritual goodness in the past,...