More than 2,500 years ago, at the height of Babylonian imperial power, a man named Daniel began to receive a series of terrifying visions, which he wrote down in his journals. And the visions Daniel saw revealed that Babylonian imperial power — the most terrible empire the world had ever known! — was really just […]
So, here we are, about to begin this book called The Song of Songs. As far as we can tell it was written about 3000 years ago, during the golden age of ancient Israel. Written perhaps by King Solomon; perhaps written by a poet — or a collection of poets — in his royal court. […]
Today we are going to jump right back into the war we have been fighting for the last several weeks. So, just to set the scene here: There is a holy city named Jerusalem, built on the lower slopes of a mountain named Zion. Outside the walls of Jerusalem a seven-headed dragon stands on the […]
So we have a major problem, brothers and sisters: as human beings we love ourselves more than we love anyone or anything else. This self-love lies at the root of everything that has gone wrong in our lives, in our relationships, in our societies. Self-love lies at the root of all shame and fear in […]
My grandfather in New Zealand was a sheep farmer, and so was my uncle. And once upon a time, when I was 8 years old, we visited my uncle’s farm. And it was very exciting, of course, to put on a pair of my cousin’s black rubber boots and go stomping around after my uncle […]
Last time we saw Moses, he was half-way through his final exam after 40 years of study at the University of Midian. He had been born into an Israelite family — a slave family — but then he had been adopted into an Egyptian family — the royal family! — attended the University of Egypt, […]
Habakkuk the prophet lived in Jerusalem about 1000 years after Moses’ time, and about 600 years before Jesus was born. His book of prophecy in the Old Testament is not very long — only three chapters — and if we were to read through it together we would find that Habakkuk’s situation was really quite […]
Early on in the Book of Genesis we are told about an empire that rose to power by building a great city that was centered around a great tower, a man-made mountain designed to operate as a temple, a stairway to the gods. And to celebrate their great ambitions, the citizens of that empire named […]
The last time we saw Moses, he had climbed Mount Sinai and disappeared into the thick darkness where God was, while the people of Israel stood at a distance from the foot of the mountain, watching. They had just endured a terrifying sermon, preached by God himself, in a voice of thunder. In this […]
So here we find Jesus teaching in the synagogue on a Sabbath, and he sees a man there whose right arm is shriveled. And the Pharisees and lawyers are all there secretly watching to see if he is going to “work” on the Sabbath by healing the man. But Jesus knows what they’re thinking, so […]
Way back at the beginning, Moses tells us, God drove Adam and Eve out of the garden, into the wilderness east of Eden. And over the years, many people have thought, “Hey, if the God of the bible is supposed to be so loving, why didn’t he just let them stay? Sure, they had rebelled […]
In the end the glory of the Lord leaves one mountain to take up residence upon another; but even this is just the beginning. Moses calls the people to shape the pieces of the tabernacle and then assemble it — according to a ritual more ancient than mankind. The Lord finally gives Moses his answer, […]
All right: even though we are in the middle of the Book of Exodus, last week we began our sermon in the garden of Eden. Because by this point in Exodus, we have realized that God is actually teaching Moses how to copy the original patterns of the original creation. We have realized that the […]
Is This Friendship? One bright spring day the leader of the Republic strode confidently across the square. He was on his way to the Senate where he would give a speech prior to his departure, for he was leading the armies east to engage the enemies on the eastern front. He had already proven himself […]