Anxiety can be driven by unrest and violence, the loss of old certainties and the rise of new ones, accelerating change and the dis-ease that seems to arise spontaneously when times...

Some years ago, I served as Canon Educator at Washington National Cathedral, and I frequently met guest speakers at the airport. On one occasion our guest was a New Testament scholar...

Forgiveness is not a private transaction. Together we are members of the household of God, “sprinkled clean” by the waters of baptism. Even the grammar of the exhortation in today’s passage...

The book of Hebrews was written to a Christian congregation sometime after 70 c.e. when the Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed. It is an exhortation or a sermon to a congregation....

Hannah’s prayer in the second chapter of First Samuel and the poetry of David at the end of Second Samuel (22–23:7) provide thematic bookends to the stories of Samuel, Saul, and...

Our approach to prayer is often transactional. We lift a concern in prayer. We wait for an answer, and we test the value of our prayers against the quality of the...

The story of Hannah draws us into a conversation about our dependence upon God and our capacity for trust. Appearing at the beginning of First Samuel, Hannah’s plight is not just...

The story of the poor widow who gives her two small copper coins is familiar to church-going folks. It is more about kingdom living than how to use our money. The...

The “scribes” are scholars of Hebrew law who interpret and instruct religious expectations. They are among the religious leaders with privilege and status, profiled by what they wear (long robes), a...

In youth Bible study at our church, one of the senior boys asked, “If you could only have one kind of grace, which one would you choose?” It was an interesting...