Imagine the first-century followers of the Way. In the two decades following Jesus’ death, the fledgling church has struggled, knowing that a confession of Jesus Christ as Lord was politically subversive...

Waste not, want not,” Ben Franklin warns. Those of us who are children of the Depression or children of children of the Depression have learned how to squeeze the life out...

Who is this?” This question seems to be on everyone’s lips as Jesus processes into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey. Is this the question on the minds of the...

Why did Jesus have to die? Who was responsible? Was it Judas, who chose to betray him for thirty pieces of silver? Or maybe we could blame Jesus’ disciples as a...

For the past three years Jesus has shared his life and ministry with his disciples—a small group of simple but committed men who have enjoyed intimate company and fellowship with Jesus...

Christians find it hard to read today’s text without thinking of Jesus’ final week on this earth. The disturbing picture of affliction, anguish, and distress painted here so vividly by the...

The apostle Paul writes these words to the church in Philippi from a Roman prison. His crime? He follows Jesus of Nazareth. His Christian faith has led to hostility, opposition, and...

Today’s passage is one of four poems found in the second part of the book of Isaiah (chapters 40–55) that deal with the mysterious figure of the suffering servant. In these...

This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” Down through the centuries God’s children have read, sung, and actively embodied these words...

John 11 juxtaposes Lazarus’s death, and by implication, the death of anyone, with belief in Jesus as Word, Light, and Resurrection. Today’s scripture enables those who experienced Lazarus’s death and we...