Look at coins from Britain, Canada, and some other Commonwealth countries, and you will see on one side a portrait of the British sovereign surrounded by an inscription. This design reflects the coinage of imperial Rome. The portrait then was that of the emperor. The inscription, in Latin abbreviation, included the emperor’s name and his…

Reading Scripture is part of our faith walk and as such it means that we have to be willing to actively engage in its meaning. When we do engage in the meaning a door opens for us to be greeted by God through the experience of another. It helps us to keep the stories alive…

The readings this week from Exodus and the Gospel of Matthew are about the unexpected. In the story from Exodus, Moses has been up on the mountain for a long time. The people are getting worried, even scared. They don’t really know where Moses has gone, or why they don’t understand. Like so many times…

What more was there to do formy vineyardthat I have not done in it?When I expected it to yield grapes,why did it yield wild grapes? . . . he expected justicebut saw bloodshed;righteousness,but heard a cry! Isaiah 5:4 and 7b “Finally he sent his son to them, saying,‘They will respect my son.’” Matthew 21:37 There…

Repetition results in knowledge. But is that enough? For the last months Matthew’s Gospel has repeated the teachings of Jesus to us in different ways. Some of these teachings have been accompanied by miracles or repeated in parables. Jesus has been a good mentor and we often talk about imitating him. There are even signs…

About ten years ago, in The Good Book: Reading The Bible With Mind And Heart, Peter Gomes wrote that what makes the Bible so compelling is the company of characters who, like ourselves, are so often both confused and confusing and yet play their part in the drama of human relationship to God. The stories…

Today is September 11, a date that will be remembered for generations yet to come. It is a date that Americans consider one of the most significant in the nation’s history. It is a date that is associated with other epic historic events such as the founding of the United States, the end of the…

Long ago the great Anglican priest and poet John Donne reminded us that, “no man is an island, entire unto himself.” For centuries we have considered a person living totally alone to be a hermit. More and more we are discovering that even in densely populated cities loneliness is a chronic, debilitating, and common condition….

Sooner or later, all of us have to bear something that is, to all intents and purposes, unbearable. A young widow is left with three children to raise alone because her husband was killed in Iraq. A baby dies at birth. A sister dies in a car crash involving a drunk driver. Sometimes it is…

Simon Peter replied, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.” And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father, in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church,…