Breathing is powerful. Since it is an involuntary function, we don’t think much about it until we are underwater, in a place with an unbearable odor, or in a dusty environment;...

On this Ascension Sunday, we are called to rejoice with all the company of earth and heaven in the gift of our risen Lord. Christ has ascended. Alleluia! We are not...

Even if we have read the first chapter of Acts many times, we may overlook this profound moment. Here, the community of Christ followers gathers on the eve of the birth...

A natural response to loss, change, or ending is to ask “What’s next?” Before Jesus ascends, his disciples ask him how the messianic vision will be fulfilled now that he is...

On this day of Christ’s ascension, we are invited to join the disciples in awe as Jesus takes his leave from earthly existence. For forty days, the resurrected Christ has been...

Mystic and philosopher Simone Weil observed that our natural human impulse is to turn away from suffering, so we tend to blame the victim. Yet the writer of First Peter challenges...

In John 16, Jesus emboldens his disciples in his farewell speech by reassuring them with the promise of the Holy Spirit. Now in the seventeenth chapter, Jesus turns his eyes to...

In the Psalms, as in the Beatitudes, the righteous are promised joy. Yet we know from our own and others’ lives that such a promise is no formula. Godly people suffer,...

Earlier in this week, we noted that Paul preaches to the Athenians to help them understand that God is transcendently close. That’s good news. In this passage, Jesus is addressing his...

A year after taking a position as a seminary professor, I discovered the secret fame of one of my colleagues. For years, the hymn “Child of Blessing, Child of Promise” (umh,...