It is like a snapshot.  Luke offers us a portrait of Jesus at age 12, a confirmand of sorts (Luke 2:41-52).  It is the only such account of Jesus’ life between toddler-age (Matthew 2) and the advent of his public ministry, when he is around 30 years old.  Here is Jesus, to us quite young,[…]

The message, “After Darkness . . .Light,” is inscribed on the plaque next to the pool of reflection, where twin fountains of water rise upward from squares representing the footprints of the World Trade Center towers.  The 9/11 Memorial Garden of Reflection in Lower Makefield, Pa, is a beautiful, deeply moving experience for people who enter.[…]

“Jesus answered, “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.”  She said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.”  Then Jesus answered, “Woman, great is your faith!”  –Matthew 15:26-28, NRSV The story of Jesus and the “Canaanite woman” resonated deeply[…]

“The spiritual gift of healing is not restricted to those in a specific economic category.”  –Dr. Harold Dean Trulear In my post earlier this week, “The Story Within the Story,” I reflected on Mark 5:21-43, the interwoven tales of healing for two “daughters” in God’s family, one the twelve year old child of the synagogue[…]

“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside of you.”  –Maya Angelou Our lives are meant to be the stories of  God-with-us.  To experience the fulfillment of these stories,these relationships, and to be able to  share them generously with others in the realm of God’s love,  is the substance of salvation.  Our stories[…]

In the wake of the Freeh report, there are renewed calls for Penn State University to remove the seven-foot statue of Joe Paterno at Beaver Stadium. An article in Thursday’s  Philadelphia Inquirer, “Joe Paterno Statue a Lightning Rod,” highlights the range of emotions swirling around whether the university should take down the statue, and other[…]

“How could the Nazis ever get to the end of the resources of such a people?” –Pastor Andre Trocme On a Saturday afternoon in late summer of 1942, police in Nazi- occupied France arrived in the southern French town of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon with several empty buses.  They demanded that the pastor of the town’s French[…]

“After this Jesus said to him, “Follow me.” —John 21:19 Peter and six of the other disciples have gone back home to Galilee.  They go fishing and catch nothing, a metaphor for returning to life as they have previously known it, even in the wake of resurrection.   In Jerusalem, Jesus had come to them[…]

“I must confess that I am not afraid of the word ‘tension’.”–Martin Luther King, Jr. Forty nine years ago, in the wake of Easter Sunday, Martin Luther King, Jr. was composing a pastoral letter from the bowels of the Birmingham City Jail. It was in the midst of Project “C”,  a nonviolent direct action campaign[…]

“Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing (Luke 23:34).” Jesus’ intercession for his murderers, made as life flowed from his body, has long been problematic.  There is something about our Lord invoking the promise of forgiveness for his crucifiers that vividly brings home the unbounded expanse of God’s love. If you[…]