Fierce love
Jesus is a Jew, part of God’s people. And as a faithful Jew, he takes a trip to the temple in Jerusalem for Passover, the festival that remembers Israel slavery…
Book of the Bible: John
Unseen revelations
Last week we read the opening scene in John’s Gospel. A man named Philip found his friend, Nathanael, and told him about a rabbi, a new one who was passing…
I am the gate
A few years ago I worked sporadically as a farmhand down the road in Efland. Most days I helped pick vegetables, gather eggs, and pitch in with whatever chores were…
Alive
Second Sunday of Easter Last week, on Easter Sunday, Isaac talked about Mary, the first preacher, about Jesus’ noncoercive call, and about naming. I carried this message about the mother…
Mary Magdalene, mother of our Easter faith
Easter John 20, verse 1: “Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark,” it says, “Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the…
We are not blind, are we?
“Surely we are not blind, are we?” (John 9:40). That’s what the Pharisees, the city leaders, ask at the end of the story, after they’ve spent a long chapter questioning…
I DESIRE
Jesus desires. He insists on himself. At least, this is the Jesus we find in our gospel reading this week. This Jesus knows what he wants, and he pleads for…
The Adhan and Ma’an lil-Hayat
Revelation 5:13, “Then I heard every creature in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, singing…” Psalm 30:4,…
washing with love
Fifth Sunday of Lent They say, when reading a Bible passage, that you should find yourself in the story, that you should try on one of the characters. See which…
Absurd, ridiculous, miraculous signs
I realize that I am dating myself with the description, but I am old enough to remember spinning my favorite album without a trace of irony, and with no notions…