In today’s reading, the people of Israel are nearing the end of their wandering in the wilderness. Moses is proclaiming God’s word to the people who have journeyed together from the...

We come to the end of our readings this week in a strange place. The Gospel lesson puts us there. Unlike the other readings, the parable from Matthew offers no deliverance,...

Our Gospel lesson is among the most difficult to interpret of all the teachings of Jesus. If we admit this up front, maybe we have some hope of gleaning something of...

Just as God uses Moses and the psalmist to bring the people of God back to their senses, God uses Paul to effect reconciliation in the Philippian church. We do not...

Euodia and Syntyche are at odds with each other, so much so that news of their conflict reaches Paul in Rome. Clearly, their disagreement is not minor, and apparently it has...

Perhaps as many as 500 years have gone by between the time the people of God get it wrong in the wilderness and the psalmist writes about it in today’s lesson....

By the time Moses makes it back to camp, the people of God are under the spell of the golden calf. God says they “are ruining everything.” And God makes it...

We are never in more danger of getting things wrong than when we are certain we have them right. The saints of the ages warn us against seeking certainty in our...

Yesterday, we read about the parable of the wicked tenants. Jesus follows this parable by quoting Hebrew scripture: “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.” The Pharisees hear...

This parable is sometimes called the parable of the wicked tenants. It is often interpreted as an allegory where Jesus is foretelling how he will be rejected by the Jews. To...