In today’s reading, Isaiah starts off nice and easy. “Shout out; do not hold back! Lift your voice like a trumpet!” But then the record scratch comes. We’re not shouting praises;...

Who does Jesus call blessed? The big dreamers—those who refuse to agree with things as they are—are blessed. Those who claim nothing as their own, who don’t cling to the things...

I joined the church back in the 1990s during a wave of revival in Ukraine. We used to say, “May God bless you!” to the people sitting beside us after worship...

The very same passage from First Corinthians can be perceived in a radically different way than how we considered it earlier this week. It depends on the status of the one...

A court hearing is not always an exciting event to attend. Of course, it does depend on our reason for being there. If we are seeking justice, we would look forward...

Who can be in God’s sanctuary? The author of this psalm describes a person whose acts, words, and values are all aligned. This alignment is called integrity. Is integrity even possible...

I am living in the midst of genocidal war. Three years in, injustice is another word for reality. Yet I see that acts of justice provide hope—and hope for a more...

Paul says “Jews ask for signs”—they want to make sure that God is in control. Israel has survived big, godless empires throughout its entire history; to accept that God has become...

We each have a choice to make. We can be a good ancestor, a keeper of a sacred fire that burns for generations, tended to and nurtured. Or, we can fade...

Why is this the world I was born into? I often find myself confronted by pain and trauma, asking how could this happen? Cancer. Death of children. Violence against loved ones....