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 woman who was a devoted member of a small church that was part of a regional cluster of churches came toward the bishop with fire in her eye. “So, when are you going to send us a priest?” she demanded. The bishop replied, “You’re asking the wrong question. The question is, ‘How is St….

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…