As is often noted, there are five women mentioned (if not all by name—sorry, Bathsheba) in the Matthew genealogy of Jesus: Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba and Mary. I want to…
In part one, we explored how the four kinds of earth mentioned in the parable of the sower—rocky soil, thorny soil, the path and good soil—are created as a response…
Lectionary blog for Sept. 17 Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost Genesis 50:15-21; Psalm 103:(1-7), 8-13; Romans 14:1-12; Matthew 18:21-35 A few years ago, I heard about an article in the Oakland…
We all come from different places. When we read the Bible, we use our own contexts to imagine the scenes in our heads. This can be helpful for personalizing the…
Lectionary blog for Sept. 10 Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost Ezekiel 33:7-11; Psalm 119:33-40; Romans 13:8-14; Matthew 18:15-20 This text is about learning to love people, even when they don’t particularly…
Lectionary blog for Aug. 6 Ninth Sunday after Pentecost Isaiah 55:1-5; Psalm 145:8-9, 14-21; Romans 9:1-5; Matthew 14:13-21 The first line of our Gospel lesson is “when Jesus heard this.” “This”…
The book of Jonah takes up exactly two pages in my Bible. But as with many parts of God’s word, just a little bit can alter the course of a…
Lectionary blog for July 23 Seventh Sunday after Pentecost Isaiah 44:6-8, Psalm 86:11-17, Romans 8:12-25; Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43 My late father-in-law liked to tell the story of a man who…
When 43 midwives graduated from a three-year midwifery training program in Liberia on May 20, a 44th person was honored: the late Deanna Isaacson, an ELCA missionary from 1966 to…
St. Paulus Lutheran Church turned 150 years old on May 15. San Francisco has been its home for the past century and a half, and during that time, St. Paulus…
The words “college students” and “free food” often go together, but two ELCA colleges—Augsburg in Minneapolis and Augustana in Rock Island, Ill.—are putting a twist on the stereotype. Both campuses have…
Death and transition are universal human experiences. Acknowledging our common mortality, some anonymous plainspoken philosopher coined the phrase: “Nobody gets out alive.” But that realization doesn’t lesson the pain that…
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