[RCL] Deuteronomy 26:1-11; Psalm 91:1-2, 9-16; Romans 10:8b-13; Luke 4:1-13 What strikes the reader and listener of the lectionary this morning is the eternal echo of God’s Word in Scripture. We hear it in the phrase “forty days and nights,” a familiar set of numbers found both in the Hebrew Scriptures and here in the…

Humanity vs. the Devil. It’s a tale as old as time. You might know one such story that starts like this: “It’s a story they tell in the border country, where Massachusetts joins Vermont and New Hampshire.         “Yes, Dan’l Webster’s dead—or, at least, they buried him. But every time there’s a thunderstorm around Marshfield, [Massachusetts,]…

It is the first Sunday in Lent and it seems as if Advent was just a few days ago. During Advent and Christmas we were confronted with the scandal of the incarnation: the wondrous and terrifying news that God entered our humanity in a specific place, at a designated time, in the form of a…

“The word is near you,on your lips and in your heart” This past Wednesday we struck out into the desert spaces alongside Jesus, receiving a cross of ashes on our forehead or on our heart to begin the Lenten season. Ash Wednesday calls upon our humanity. It reminds us that we are but dust and…

The lessons for the first Sunday in Lent can be viewed as a roadmap for our Lenten journey. They embody the theme of journeying: travel, protection, and longing for a destination. If we look at each of them as Lenten guides, they will richly serve us through this season. Deuteronomy talks about our heritage as…

If you ever want to find out how much you don’t know about something, take a walk in the park with a real birdwatcher. As you make your way down the path, you will notice that your birdwatcher friend pauses now and again, as definitely as if someone had called her name. She stops, her…