Choosing Good Leaders

Our strong roots in democracy don’t give us particularly good background for understanding the biblical concept of kingship. Living as we do in one of the first countries to reject rule by a monarch in favor of a federation of independent states, we balk at the idea of locating all authority in one person. From [...]

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To Live, to Love, to Leave a Legacy

In a recent episode of The Simpsons, the wealthy businessman Montgomery Burns nearly drowns in a fountain. With what he thinks is his last breath, he says, “Apparently I’m dying. Sure wish I’d spent more time at the office.”
We laugh because we know that the reality is that most people will do anything they can [...]

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Grounded in Grace

In a touching scene in Frances Hodgson Burnett’s well-loved children’s novel The Secret Garden, the fiery tempered young orphan Mary Lennox begins to win the heart of grief-stricken Mr. Archibald Craven with her simple request for “a bit of earth” for a garden. In the course of bringing the long-neglected [...]

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Bargaining With God

The lectionary selection from the Hebrew Scriptures for the 17th week of the year is one of my favorites. Listening to Abraham haggling with God like a trader in the bazaar reminds us that the Judeo-Christian Scriptures have always seen God in relationship with the Chosen People. That relationship, of course, reached it purest manifestation [...]

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The big letting go

All week in the lectionary we’ve been hearing the story of Abraham. His choice to enter into a covenant with God set the course for the Chosen People. His story is their story—and ours. We are heirs to the promise made to Abraham and the greater promise fulfilled in Christ. The Akedah (the binding [...]

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Biblical Heroines

Yesterday’s reading was the akedah (the binding of Isaac), and I have some thoughts on it, but they’re not in order yet. In the meantime, here’s a Beliefnet quiz. I wasn’t a bit surprised at my results. (HT to Brittany).
Quiz: Which Bible Heroine Are You?

You scored 52, on a scale of 0 to 100. [...]

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Burning our Plows

The lectionary readings for this 13th Sunday of the year, at least the first and the third, are linked by the image of a plow. In the reading from Kings, Elijah calls Elisha to follow him by throwing his mantle over his shoulders. Elisha leaves his plow and tells the great prophet, “Let me [...]

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The Birth of John the Baptist

So many wonderful images from the readings this weekend, but I was caught up in the family celebration of my great-nephew’s baptism. I was one of the lectors and was blessed to be able to read that wonderul passage from Isaiah: “The Lord called me from birth. From my mother’s womb he gave me my [...]

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Tobit’s Wife (the rest of the story)

Continuing from the previous post, where we began taking an imaginative look at the Book of Tobit through the eyes of his wife Anna.
Once Tobit decided that it would be better for him to die, there was no shaking him from his depression. He lectured Tobiah day and night about the need to be virtuous, [...]

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Tobit’s Wife Looks Back

Several years ago when I was studying Scripture at the Athenaeum with Fr. Tim Schehr, one of the assignments was to look at the book of Tobit through the eyes of his wife. I had a great time with it and thought that I’d share it here. It’s longer than I realized, so I’ll [...]

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