We refer to the writings of Paul as epistles—a literary form that uses a letter format. Paul’s epistles are meant as teaching tools to be read aloud in the early church....

When I read psalms I often try to imagine who the narrator is and why he or she composed the psalm. Sometimes I imagine the psalmist as a liturgist, rousing a...

If we pivot our focus in this passage from the history of Israel—the formation of the covenant family—to read it as a story about spiritual formation, the symbols and textures emerge...

The story of Hagar and Ishmael being sent into the wilderness has as its backstory a great moment in biblical history gone sour. Abraham and Sarah have received a powerful, joyful...

Travel light, but travel with Christ’s authority to preach the nearness of the kingdom and to heal the sick and raise the dead. These instructions to the twelve apostles follow the...

These verses offer a simple description of what Jesus does. He teaches, he preaches or proclaims, and he heals. All these flow out of his love of God and his compassion...

“Christ arrives right on time. . . . He doesn’t wait for us to get ready” (the message). The first movement of the gospel symphony is that God loves us; God makes the first...

God makes us right, gives us peace, brings us into grace, and offers us hope for the future. Despite our own best efforts and mighty struggles, God is always before us...

Though many psalms speak to our personal situation, most of the book of Psalms entered the canon as the songbook and prayer book of the community. If you imagine a procession...

When things seem too good to be true, we doubt them; yet often we have no trouble believing that things are as bad as we are told. Sarah laughs an old-age...