Akind of stunned bemusement sometimes emerges unbidden at times of surprise, especially when our clearest thinking and best analysis make us expect failure. When success emerges through a con uence of...

Over the past few years the challenge of hospitality and welcome for refugees eeing war and persecution has once again confronted wealthy Western countries. Countries in Western Europe, North America, and...

Jesus commands the remnant of his community to make disciples everywhere, baptizing in the name of the triune God those whom they invite to join God’s mission of love and justice....

The risen Jesus promised the members of his community that he would be with them always. He would be with them when their mission met resistance. They would know his pres-...

Paul offers advice to the Christians at Corinth and hints of a troubled past relationship between him and the church. Though he urges the community to love the member of the...

The psalmist and the writer of the Creation account in Gene- sis put humankind at the pinnacle of Creation, and biblical translations use words like dominion, rule, and subdue to describe...

Cotton elds and woods surround the retreat house I visit in Scott, Georgia. Few houses line the road that leads to the Green Bough House of Prayer. I see a horse...

Genesis tells us that creating the world took work. Separat- ing light from darkness and water from dry land required divine effort. Through labor born of God’s creative imagination and love,...

According to this Creation account, the created order, includ- ing human existence, begins in darkness when “a wind from God” sweeps over the face of the waters. Though God separates light...

Pentecost celebrates the coming of the Holy Spirit to the followers of Jesus some fifty days after his death on the cross. (The word Pentecost means “fifty” in Greek and is...