Having empathy is a first step in the disciple’s way of generosity. Today’s reading begins, “Be gracious to me . . . for I am in distress, my eye wastes away...

We turn toward the readings from the Liturgy of the Passion, first to Isaiah’s witness to the Suffering Servant. Along with the psalm and epistle to follow, this reading works to...

God is addressing you through the scriptures, calling you to participate in what God is doing. That’s never truer than in the psalm appointed for the Liturgy of the Palms. Note...

Today we begin our turn toward Holy Week and toward the complex liturgy with which it begins, Passion/Palm Sunday. Which is it? It’s both, Palms and Passion juxtaposed, and there begins...

Twenty-five years ago, on the Fifth Sunday of Lent, our organization underwent upheaval. I worked for the General Board of Discipleship (now Discipleship Ministries) of The United Methodist Church. That morning...

On September 11, 2001, my friend Michael Hingson and his guide dog, Roselle, went to work in his office on the 78th floor of the North Tower of the World Trade...

In this short, autobiographical snippet, Paul recaps his little life and places it within the big story of God’s activity. He recounts his credentials and religious heritage, then mentions his need...

I serve on a committee of clergy and laity that meets several times a year to certify candidates for ordained ministry in our denomination. There are criteria for the candidates: seminary...

In this dinner at the home of the family Jesus loved, we witness discipleship in several forms. First we see Mary anointing Jesus’ feet with an expensive perfume, then wiping it...

Thirty years ago, my spiritual director taught me to pray the psalms. The psalms teach us to pray and bring the truth of our lives to God, including the emotions and...