Imagine the Israelites at Sinai. They have fled from Pharaoh, rushed headlong through a miraculously parted sea, and then traveled on into a barren desert wilderness. Suddenly, it dawns on them...

How easily we can forget our purpose once we get underway. How readily a meeting can be subverted and diverted by a side issue or question! How quickly in our relationships...

Iam honored to have a six-year-old grandson who imitates me in many things. No father participates in his life. I tend to be the family member who transports him to his...

A woman in my congregation named Carolyn keeps a low profile. She has never held high office in the congregation, never been a volunteer lay preacher, never chaired a committee, and...

Our age often seems bedeviled by huge global issues that defy simple answers. We have ongoing controversy over climate change and what we ought to do. We are faced with refugees...

For years, I used these words as part of baptism preparation with young couples. On one of the three evenings, I would invite them to name some of the special Christians...

No one can fight like Christians.” I heard this angry, frustrated lament from my mother when I was a teen. My parents‘ tiny rural church was closing (in the face of...

The year was 1988. My denomination (The United Church of Canada) had taken a difficult social justice position. Some had left the church in protest. Others had loudly complained—still others had...

Throughout the parable, the owner of the vineyard is the dominant figure. He instructs his manager to pay the workers, and he addresses the laborers who think they have been wronged....

Jesus faces an audience generally trained in the Jewish doctrine of merit. The immediate context of the parable concerns Peter’s question about what he and his fellow disciples will receive for...