Tag: god
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Little Faith
Matthew 14:22-33 – 8/9/2026 – The Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost You of little faith, why did you doubt? Matthew 14:31 (NRSVue) Jesus walks on the water, the surface of the Sea of Galilee. Peter sees this, and says, “Me too!” and jumps out onto the waves. Once Peter realizes what he is doing, that he…
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An Exasperated Christ
Matthew 16:1-4 – 8/8/2026 The Pharisees and Sadducees came, and to test Jesus they asked him to show them a sign from heaven. He answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation asks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah.” Then he left them and went away.…
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Place Matters
Acts 18:24-28 – 8/7/2026 Now there came to Ephesus a Jew named Apollos from Alexandria. He was an eloquent man, well-versed in the scriptures. Acts 18:24 (NRSVue) The opening verse from today’s New Testament reading reminded me of something I re-learned recently. Alexandria was the center of the Mediterranean world, the Greek-speaking world, for almost…
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Jesus Fed People
Matthew 15:32-39 – 8/5/2026 [Jesus said], “I have compassion for the crowd because they have been with me now for three days and have nothing to eat, and I do not want to send them away hungry, for they might faint on the way.” Matthew 15:32 (NRSVue) Jesus’s feeding of the 5000 with only a…
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The Troubling Sides of Faith
Psalm 78:1-8, 17-29 – 8/3/2026 Therefore, when the Lord heard, he was full of rage; a fire was kindled against Jacob, his anger mounted against Israel, because they had no faith in God and did not trust his saving power. Psalm 78:21-22 (NRSVue) Lately for the daily lectionary reflection, I have written about scripture that…
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Choosing One’s Own Oppression
Isaiah 55:1-5 – 8/2/2026 – The Tenth Sunday after Pentecost Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread and your earnings for that which does not satisfy? Isaiah 55:2 (NRSVue) Deleuze puts it roughly this way. Why do some people fight for their own oppression as if it were their salvation?…
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Disappointments in Faith
Matthew 7:7-11 – 8/1/2026 Everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. Matthew 7:8 (NRSVue) Here is one of Jesus’s most famous teachings found in Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount. Jesus promises that asking, searching, and knocking will produce results, gifts from God. As…
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The Four Sources of Suffering
Isaiah 51:17-23 – 7/31/2026 Rouse yourself, rouse yourself! Stand up, O Jerusalem, you who have drunk at the hand of the Lord the cup of his wrath, who have drunk to the dregs the cup of staggering Isaiah 51:17 (NRSVue) Today’s reading from Isaiah is about the wrath of God poured out on the people.…
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Rejecting Infallibilism as a Hermeneutic
Psalm 145:8-9, 14-21 – 7/30/2026 The Lord upholds all who are falling and raises up all who are bowed down. Psalm 145:14 (NRSVue) I often think about how I used to read the Bible, back when I was part of a culture and church community that believed that a literal interpretation of scripture was infallibly…
Dionysus on a Bike 