Jesus delivers “blessings and woes” to the rich and the poor in Luke 6:20-26. The woes are for the rich. Jesus didn’t give a nod to the rich people who were merely hard workers or well-meaning. He didn’t take the time to differentiate between those who were abusing their privileges or not. Jesus delivers blessings to…
If there’s one word that describes the Christian church the least, it would be the noun “unity.” This unfortunate reality seems to stretch all the way back to the earliest iteration of the Christian church. This lack of unity is the basis for Paul’s well-known metaphor, that the church is like a body. He creates…
Luke records part of the visit between Mary and Elizabeth including Mary’s song. There are many themes in this text. Here I’m looking at the extraordinary experience they share in their pregnancy. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed with a loud…
One of the scribes came near and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well he asked him, “Which commandment is the first of all?” Jesus answered, “The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart…
This short Psalm is a Psalm of thanksgiving to the Lord, who delivered the people of Israel from certain death. I don’t know if this was originally written about a specific victory. Psalm 124 is one of the Psalms of Ascent, which were sung each year as the Jewish people returned to Jerusalem for Passover. This…
