The 16th and 21st centuries sure are different, aren’t they? Everything has changed. We live in an electronic world; they lived in a fire-lit world. We have modern medicine; they had herbal remedies and nothing else except the bone saw. They had the plague and...
Today we look to Psalm 23 verse 5. David writes, “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.” We would normally think of David rendering service to God. But here, he states the total opposite—God is attending to his needs. The...
Names in the Old Testament were different than names now. Not just the names themselves, but in OT times names conveyed meaning, unlike today, when it seems anything goes. And there were generally not last names in the OT – villages were small, and you might...
Our readings today, Isaiah 5:1-7 and the Gospel, Matthew 21:33-46 reflect the ancient cultural connection to the cultivation of grapes for wines. Both testaments offer the vineyard as symbol of God’s desire for us to yield good fruit. Now, there’s a pretty good vineyard story, before...
Psalm 25 is a beautiful statement of faith, confession of sin, reminder of God’s grace and faithfulness – and also complex literature. It is an acrostic, that is, each successive verse begins with the succeeding consonant of the Hebrew alphabet, verse one with aleph, verse...
King David begins Psalm 27 by proclaiming: “The Lord is my light and my salvation -- whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life -- of whom shall I be afraid?” The Lord is the true light and strength in our...
Interesting to me how important in Scripture is the concept, and the action, of forgiveness. It begins early in His-story: in Genesis 3 God forgives the first sinners, does not condemn them, but clothes them to withstand the world outside the Garden. God is a...
Today, together, we speak much of Psalm 51, David’s heart-felt prayer of confession, and of confidence in God’s forgiving grace. You know the story: Nathan came to David to confront him with the terrible sin to which David had fallen, resulting in the death of...
Paul’s letter to the church at Rome is many things – as complete an exposition of God’s grace through faith for the sake of Jesus Christ as can be found in scripture; it is also Paul’s admonition as to how those Roman Christians might behave...
The gospel reading for this day is Matthew 16: 13-20. You might want to have that handy to follow as we walk through this lesson together. Jesus and the apostles are once again found away from their northern Israel homeland, perhaps 25 miles north of the...