“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” This opening line of the 22nd psalm is one of the most plaintive cries in Scripture, or indeed, in all of literature. It is a cry of agony, despair, and abandonment....
It is the last night of Jesus’ earthly life, the last time he will have dinner with his friends. The specter of betrayal and death is hanging over him. So how does he spend this last meal with his friends, this last time...
Today is Palm Sunday, the beginning of Holy Week, the most sacred week of the year for Christians. Normally this is also the church’s busiest week of the year. Choirs will have spent weeks rehearsing not just for today and Easter, but for special services on...
Amazingly, it was only two weeks ago that we were gathered in person in this space in what I suspected would be our last physical gathering for some time. It seems like a lot longer, doesn’t it? Our Old Testament reading that day was from the...
Last week in what turns out to have been our last time to physically worship together for who knows how long, I talked about how often the scripture readings for a particular Sunday, in a schedule set decades ago, seem to talk to our current...
First this morning, I have to recognize the irony that two out of three of our scripture readings are about living water in the same week that we emptied the baptismal font as a precaution against the coronavirus. Perhaps that...
Years ago I was interviewing people for a position at the church where I worked. One woman seemed very qualified for the job, and came across as competent, capable, and personable. The interview took an unexpected turn when she asked me a question: “What is your...
Baptisms are cause for celebration. After almost every baptism there is a special reception at church, often followed by another party at home for family and friends. That was not the case for Jesus. He was baptized by his cousin John at age 30 in...
