April 2025

The Old Testament reading for today (Genesis 17:3-9) tells the story of God establishing his covenant with Abram.  Before today’s scene, Abram frequently demonstrated his faith in God, even in trying circumstances.  God speaks to Abram, now 99 years old: “I shall maintain my covenant between myself and you, and to your descendants after you, […]

King Nebuchadnezzar questioned them: “Is it true, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, that you will not serve my god, or worship the golden statue that I set up?   Now, if you are ready to fall down and worship the statue I made, whenever you hear the sound of the horn, pipe, zither, dulcimer, harp, double-flute,

Just as in the Synoptic Gospels, in the Gospel of John, Jesus three times solemnly prophesies his passion. But the passion predictions in John are unique in that Jesus speaks of his crucifixion as a “lifting up,” alluding to the biblical story of the bronze seraph (serpent) lifted up on a pole (Numbers 21:4-9). Of

In Babylon there lived a man named Joakim, who married a very beautiful and God-fearing woman, Susanna, the daughter of Hilkiah; her pious parents had trained their daughter according to the law of Moses. Joakim was very rich; he had a garden near his house, and the Jews had recourse to him often because he

There is something about starting over. A new page. A new year. A new week. A new day.  That feeling that the past is the past. I am relieved to know that we who have messed up get a second chance, and that we are given the opportunity to learn from our mistakes. That concept