Scripture: Genesis 47:9 – “Jacob said to Pharaoh, ‘The years of my earthly sojourn are one hundred thirty; few and hard have been the years of my life. They do not compare with the years of the life of my ancestors during their long sojourn.’” (NRSVUE) One of the things that really throws readers of the Book of Genesis for a loop is how long people live for. Before the Flood, people lived for hundreds of years. Adam lived to be 930, Noah lived to be 950, and record-breaker

Scripture: Matthew 12:39 – “But he answered them, ‘An evil and adulterous generation asks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.’” (NRSVUE) How many of us have been in a place of great doubt or turmoil or have faced a momentous decision and cried out, “God, please give me a sign!”? We need assurance to make sure that our decision will be the right one and will provide us with happiness and security. Of course, whatever signs we do

Scripture: Exodus 14:14 – “The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to keep still.” (NRSVUE) When we think of God’s greatest miracles, the parting of the Red Sea is toward the top of the list. With the Egyptians about to overtake them, the Israelite slaves are amazed as God parts the sea and allows them to walk on dry land to safety. Freedom, which seemed so impossible, has been delivered. The people’s celebration still rings out thousands of years later. Our Bible

Scripture: Genesis 29:35 – “She conceived again and bore a son and said, ‘This time I will praise the Lord,’ therefore she named him Judah; then she ceased bearing.” (NRSVUE) I have always had a soft spot in my heart for Leah in the Book of Genesis. She is the sister of Rachel, and Genesis describes them this way, “Leah’s eyes were weak, but Rachel was graceful and beautiful.” (NRSVUE) “Weak” can also be translated as soft or delicate. It is unclear whether this is a defect

Scripture: Isaiah 51:1 – “Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness, you who seek the Lord. Look to the rock from which you were hewn and to the quarry from which you were dug.” (NRSVUE) It is very easy to feel small. Part of it is that there are billions of people in the world and you are just one of them. Part of it is that the rich and powerful seem to be able to do whatever they want while as you have to scrimp and save and accept the things you cannot change. And as y

Scripture: Luke 17:1 – “Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Occasions for sin are bound to come, but woe to anyone through whom they come!’” (NRSVUE) Which is worse: the crime or the abetting of the crime? Obviously, the crime is worse. What you do matters most of all; if there is no crime there is no harm. People are judged by their actions, not their thoughts. But Jesus says something interesting in chapter 17 of the Gospel According to Luke that might make us rethink this idea

Scripture: Luke 12:1b-2 – “Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees, that is, their hypocrisy. Nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered and nothing secret that will not become known.” (NRSVUE) What are you hiding? If you are making bread, you might be hiding yeast. Yeast is something that most people don’t think about, especially since most of us buy bread at a grocery store rather than make it ourselves. Yeast is a fungus that uses fermentation, converting carbohydra

Scripture: Psalm 119:42 – “Then I shall have an answer for those who taunt me, for I trust in your word.” (NRSVUE) We have this romanticized image of the past where everyone was united by their faith in the one God. We contrast this with the anger and division we see before us today, a time when it seems no one speaks the same language any more. But if you read the Bible, you will notice that this was never the case. There were always times when people were ridiculed or per

Scripture: Genesis 4:26 – “To Seth also a son was born, and he named him Enosh. At that time people began to invoke the name of the Lord.” (NRSVUE) There are few things less interesting than other people’s family trees, especially if they involve ancestors you have never heard of. Unfortunately, there are lots of parts of the Bible that are long and meandering genealogies, the so-called “begats” that have thwarted many an attempt to read the Bible from cover to cover. But t

Scripture: 2 Timothy 1:12b – “But I am not ashamed, for I know the one in whom I have put my trust, and I am sure that he is able to guard until that day the deposit I have entrusted to him.” (NRSVUE) The other day, I was watching an interview with Yale Professor Teresa Morgan by C. J. Cornthwaite. The topic was how the meaning of the Greek word pistis, which we regularly translate as “faith”, shifted over the years. When we say “faith”, we often mean believing things that

Scripture: 1 Peter 4:6 – “For this is the reason the gospel was proclaimed even to the dead, so that, though they had been judged in the flesh as everyone is judged, they might live in the spirit as God does.” (NRSVUE) One thing I have noticed about mainline pastors like me is that we rarely talk about what happens to you after you die. We don’t put up billboards that say, “If you die tonight? Heaven or Hell”. I think we should focus on living the best and most loving life

Scripture: Psalm 68:5 – “Father of orphans and protector of widows is God in his holy habitation.” (NRSVUE) Christians believe that God is almighty, omnipotent, and all powerful. God cannot lose. And sometimes, we just want to see God “taking names”. We want to see God claim unquestionable victory over all the forces that oppose us. Psalm 68 is a psalm of victory and lists all the ways in which God triumphs. It alludes to God’s role leading the people from slavery in Egyp

Scripture: Exodus 13:21 – “The Lord went in front of them in a pillar of cloud by day, to lead them along the way, and in a pillar of fire by night, to give them light, so that they might travel by day and by night.” (NRSVUE) As I Christian, I often focus on the power of the Gospel story. Jesus’ incarnation, wisdom, compassion, crucifixion, and resurrection are the guiding principles of my life, and assure me that transformation towards becoming the person God has called me

Scripture: Jeremiah 26:20 – “There was another man prophesying in the name of the Lord, Uriah son of Shemaiah from Kiriath-jearim. He prophesied against this city and against this land in words exactly like those of Jeremiah.” (NRSVUE) Did you know that the prophet Jeremiah was a nepo baby? In the beginning of the Book of Jeremiah, when young Jeremiah is called by God to be a prophet, God says, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecra

Scripture: Psalm 104:24 – “O Lord, how manifold are your works! In wisdom you have made them all; the earth is full of your creatures.” (NRSVUE) Why did God create the world in all its rich diversity? Was it all for our benefit as creatures made in God’s image and granted dominion over all plants and animals (Genesis 1:28)? Or does the world have a divine dignity all its own, created to be “very good” by God every step of the way (Genesis 1:31)? Or are things more complicat

Scripture: Judges 6:39 – “Then Gideon said to God, ‘Do not let your anger burn against me, but let me speak one more time; let me, please, make trial with the fleece just once more; let it be dry only on the fleece, and on all the ground let there be dew.’” (NRSVUE) The Bible is filled with truth and comfort, challenge and mercy, but sometimes it can get a little weird. One of the weirdest books is Judges, which is rarely read on Sunday mornings. I think this is because the

Scripture: Song of Solomon 8:6 – “Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm, for love is strong as death, passion fierce as the grave. Its flashes are flashes of fire, a raging flame.” (NRSVUE) I learned a new word today: antilegomena. It is applied to books from the Bible that people debated about including in the canon. We like to imagine an obvious distinction between canonical and non-canonical books, but the reality is that someone had to make a judgmen

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 1:25 – “For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.” (NRSVUE) April Fools’ Day is more serious than you might think. There is, and should be, lots of silliness: fun, Dad jokes, harmless little gags. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is famous for their elaborate April Fools’ Day pranks or “hacks”, such as getting a police car on top of the Great Dome or tricking the world into thinkin

Scripture: Philippians 1:23-24 – “I am hard pressed between the two: my desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better, but to remain in the flesh is more necessary for you.” (NRSVUE) What is better: to be with Christ or to live for Christ? I am thinking of two answers to this question, and both are from outside the Bible. The first is the Rapture in Dispensationalist Christianity, the idea that before the horrors of the End Times, God will whisk the good

Scripture: Isaiah 60:18 – “Violence shall no more be heard in your land, devastation or destruction within your borders; you shall call your walls Salvation and your gates Praise.” (NRSVUE) What is the opposite of violence? When we see distant wars, mass shootings, and even the painful losses that no one ever seems to notice, how do we respond? One way, and perhaps the first way, is with a need for revenge. We long to revisit the pain we have felt upon others. If retali