Library

We’ve all heard fishermen wax eloquent on “the fish that got away.” The four-week season of Advent is the liturgical season that for many of us “gets away.”

Today, only a few people today envision a king governing their country; kingship is a foreign term.

The language of the biblical books of Daniel and Mark can puzzle modern hears, for they seem to convey doom and gloom rather than joy and hope.

For at Haley House or Pine Street Inn, whether a guest was thoughtful like Clarkie or difficult like Gene the Marine, I witnessed faith, compassion and dignity.

The Scriptures tell us about two widows. One was a widow and single mom in a town outside the land of Israel in the ninth century BCE when the prophet Elijah was active. The other widow lived in Jesus’s Jerusalem.

Among the historical revolutions that have changed our lives, there is one that has affected Jews and Christians more than any other. It took place in Israel – God’s revelation as the one and only deity.

“So if I have said anything that resonates with you, this idea then is that to be a Christian, to be a Jew, to be a Muslim, to be of any faith tradition is more than doctrinal belief. It’s moving beyond doctrinal belief and ritual participation, to practice the values that we claim to believe in society and especially on behalf of people in need.”  

Toward the end of the Church’s liturgical year, the gospels speak of the sun being darkened and the stars falling, and people feeling fear and awe. Something new is being born, and it is accompanied with birth pangs.

Because finding sources of authentic hope can help us to persevere in confusing and dangerous times, we will be using this blog space to report on where and how people are finding hope these days and how they are using hope to help themselves and others.

Sunday’s reading is about money and the prestige and privilege it brings. Many people dream about wealth, even though it brings danger.

The Lord, the God of Israel, stands up for the widow and the fatherless, vulnerable categories because they lacked the nurture and protection of a family.

Today’s readings are about spiritual gifts given to individuals and generosity toward the community, topics not often discussed together.

Today’s Lectionary readings address the problem of trust, an attitude that many feel lacking in American society today.

The story is told of a woman who lived a long and busy life. But feeling she had carried too heavy a cross, she managed to gain admittance to a heavenly warehouse of crosses she could exchange for more suitable ones.

It might seem to some people that the first reading, from Isaiah, makes an exaggerated claim, “[the Lord] God comes to save you. Then will the eyes of the blind be opened, the ears of the deaf be cleared; then the lame will leap like a stag.”

Most Jews did not accept Jesus as messiah, which of course caused conflict between Jews and Christ-followers in the first century.

How did the people who listened to Joshua respond to the divine gifts of freedom, land, and wise laws?