Today we learn the outcome of the gardener’s investment of care. When he harvests the grapes, they are not the sweet, wholesome fruit for which he prepared. They are wild grapes,...

Love often takes the shape of preparation. A young man showers and shaves and washes his car as he thinks of a date with his beloved later that day. A mother-to-be...

Live in readiness. Be dressed for action. Keep your batteries charged. Jesus does not equate waiting with doing nothing. Life is lived in the present, and Jesus has just instructed the...

“Do not be afraid.” The angel’s words to Zechariah and then to Mary in Luke 1 appear again on Jesus’ lips in today’s reading. These words and variations of them appear...

The writer as storyteller spends the rest of the eleventh chapter of Hebrews naming people of faith who put their trust in God in myriad circumstances. This week’s lectionary reading speaks...

The writer of the letter to the Hebrews, whom scholars believe is not Paul, is a theologian and a storyteller. The eleventh chapter begins by setting out the direction and the...

On the heels of Isaiah comes a psalm of judgment. While we may prefer psalms of comfort, like Psalm 23, or psalms of praise and thanksgiving, like Psalm 8, psalms of...

In frustration, we may ask, “What do you want me to do?” We long for clarity and direction, even though we may not like the answers we receive and think we...

The longest prophetic book in the Hebrew scriptures begins with complaints about the rebellious people of Judah in the Southern Kingdom with its capital of Jerusalem. The readings this week address...

Our ten-month-old grandson is our joy and delight. During one of his visits to our house, I was busy in the kitchen when I noticed he had gotten uncommonly quiet in...