Tag: bible
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Food for the Hungry from an Embodied God
Joel 2:18-29 – 5/25/2026 I am sending you grain, wine, and oil, and you will be satisfied Joel 2:19 (NRSVue) Today’s reading from the Hebrew Prophet Joel contains the prophesy that Peter references on the first day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit descends on the gathered believers. “I will pour out my spirit on…
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The Partnership between God and Man
John 20:19-23 – 5/24/2026 – Day of Pentecost When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” John 20:22-23 (NRSVue) Today’s text comes from the celebration…
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Where are the Peacemakers?
Matthew 5:1-12 – 5/23/2026 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God Matthew 5:9 (NRSVue) Who are the peacemakers when there is no peace? Certainly there are many who are not actively contributing to the violence of our age. The large mass of humanity who suffer under the exploitation of capitalism…
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The Age of the Absence of God
Exodus 19:16-25 – 5/22/2026 Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God. Exodus 19:17 (NRSVue) Moses bought the people… to meet God. Poetic in its straightforwardness, we are given a picture of the immediate presence of God being discerned by an entire people gathered together. Even though only Aaron and Moses could…
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The Text of Humanity Under Threat
Acts 2:1-11 – 5/21/2026 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability. Acts 2:4 (NRSVue) Christianity proliferates text. Between the oral traditions of the earliest church to the sermons that resound from pulpits every Sunday around the world, the world has…
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A Reorientation from Death to Life
John 3:31-36 – 5/20/2026 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever [is not persuaded by] the Son will not see life but [God’s wrath remains on them]. John 3:36 (NRSVue with my own corrections from the Greek) John is the most concerned of all the Gospels with belief versus unbelief and being persuaded…
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Standing Between the Living and the Dead
Numbers 16:41-50 – 5/19/2026 Aaron took [the incense] as Moses had ordered and ran into the middle of the assembly, where the plague had already begun among the people. He put on the incense and made atonement for the people. He stood between the dead and the living, and the plague was stopped. Numbers 16:47-48…
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The Embodied Ritual of the Christian Life
Leviticus 9:1-11, 22-24 – 5/18/2026 Draw near to the altar and sacrifice your purification offering and your burnt offering and make atonement for yourself and for the people, and sacrifice the offering of the people and make atonement for them, as the Lord has commanded. Leviticus 9:7 (NRSVue) Before I left the life of the…
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Persecution Complex
1 Peter 4:12-14; 5:6-11 – 5/17/2026 – Seventh Sunday of Easter Rejoice insofar as you are sharing Christ’s sufferings, so that you may also be glad and shout for joy when his glory is revealed. If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the spirit of glory, which is the…
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“I Am” not a being but Being Itself
John 8:21-30 – 5/16/2026 Jesus said, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will realize that I am.” John 8:28 (NRSVue) – alternative translation (see footnote in the NRSVue Biblical text) Perhaps no where is Jesus more explicit about his divinity than in the Gospel of John where he declares several…
Dionysus on a Bike 