What follows is largely based on the teachings of esteemed New Testament scholar John Knox, who wrote extensively about the context of today’s Epistle. Before examining the Romans passage, however, let us focus on the very familiar story in today’s Gospel – the encounter between Jesus and the woman at the well. How did we…

The story we just heard about Jesus talking with a Samaritan woman at the well outside Sychar is a story full of surprises. The first surprise is that the conversation happens at all. The barriers to it are great. Jesus is a Jew and the woman is a Samaritan. Between Samaritan and Jew there is…

The lectionary readings begin with our ancestors being led by Moses through the wilderness, on the journey from slavery in Egypt toward an unknown Promised Land. Memories of the long wilderness period in ancient Israel’s life are prominent throughout the Hebrew scriptures. There are many times when, as at the end of today’s psalm, Psalm…

“Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, ‘Rabbi, eat something.’” It is not often that we find anyone in the gospels giving Jesus advice or telling him what to do. He is, after all, the Lord—the one who tells others what to do. Jesus does not need anyone’s advice. Even his mother, in the story of…

In a sermon from 1956, the 10th anniversary of the Church of the Saviour in Washington, D.C., Gordon Cosby, a co-founder of that church, speaks of the importance of a personal encounter with Jesus such as the Samaritan woman at the well experiences: “…I have discovered…that commitment and discipline are the absolute essentials for any…

Most of the western United States suffers severe droughts in several decades every century. These are times when the grass is brown or there is no grass at all and the land is cracked and broken; times when cattle are forced to gather around broken up bales of hay and creep feeders; when stock tanks…

A procession is different from a parade. A parade is before a home coming game. A procession is a senior class on graduation day. A parade is political. A procession is the funeral of a president. A parade is decorated bicycles around a neighborhood. A procession is food being brought to a home where there…