If we consult the Holy Scriptures we can have no doubt that God promised his church here on earth a better state than this. Philipp Jakob Spener (1675) Given all…

Isaiah 55:1-9  • Psalm 63:1-8  • 1 Corinthians 10:1-13  • Luke 13:1-9 Too often, I fear, folks praise a writer or other public figure as “prophetic” because that public figure speaks moralistically, often aggressively against people…

Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18  • Psalm 27  • Philippians 3:17-4:1  • Luke 13:31-35 or Luke 9:28-36, (37-43a) The second Sunday in Lent, a season dedicated to fasting and reflection on our sins, seems a…

Deuteronomy 26:1-11  • Psalm 91:1-2, 9-16  • Romans 10:8b-13  • Luke 4:1-13 Since Wednesday is Ash Wednesday, I have a public-service announcement to make: LENT IS A FAST. FASTING MEANS ABSTAINING FROM SOMETHING INHERENTLY GOOD, FOR…

Exodus 34:29-35  • Psalm 99  • 2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2  • Luke 9:28-36, (37-43a) Now that I preach only occasionally, usually when our preacher at Bogart Christian Church is out of town, I realize that one of…

Jeremiah 1:4-10  •Psalm 71:1-6  • 1 Corinthians 13:1-13  • Luke 4:21-30 I’ll admit that the gospel reading for this week is one that would have tempted me to too-easy, shock-value sermons in a…

Download or Stream this Episode Letters of Fire from St. Pauls Press Settle in and join Nathan Gilmour and Father Thomas Esposito, O. Cist., for a conversation about letter-writing, Harry Potter,…

Isaiah 62:1-5  • Psalm 36:5-10  • 1 Corinthians 12:1-11  • John 2:1-11 I realized, as I started re-reading John 2, that I don’t have much of an idea of what a “steward” is. …

Isaiah 43:1-7  • Psalm 29  • Acts 8:14-17  • Luke 3:15-17, 21-22 Before I get rolling on the reflection proper, I want to exhort folks who are preaching the gospel text this week…

Download or Stream this Episode To the one who writes “Jesus is the answer” on the youth-room poster or on the bathroom stall, I reply, “Jesus is the question.”  And…

Jeremiah 31:7-14 or Sirach 24:1-12  • Psalm 147:12-20 or Wisdom of Solomon 10:15-21  • Ephesians 1:3-14  • John 1:(1-9), 10-18 One of my defects of personality (the list is long) is that, when…

On August 28, 430 AD, as a Vandal army lay in siege around his beloved city, Bishop Augustine of Hippo Regius died and left Christendom a legacy. In the centuries…

1 Samuel 2:18-20, 26  • Psalm 148  • Colossians 3:12-17  • Luke 2:41-52 First, I am aware that Christmas lies between today and next Sunday.  But this is a series of blog posts…

Micah 5:2-5a  • Luke 1:46b-55 or Psalm 80:1-7  • Hebrews 10:5-10  • Luke 1:39-45, (46-55) One of my favorite bits of wisdom for reading the Bible comes from Robert Alter’s book The Art…

Download or Stream this Episode St. Paul is at once one of the most familiar literary voices and one of the most perplexing.  An early convert to the Jesus movement…