It was a loud party day, a celebration of what God had done for God’s people, marked by movement and music and food and joy. On that day the Lord spoke...

An old Christian adage says that every Christian needs to experience three conversions—a conversion of the heart, the head, and finally the pocketbook. Zacchaeus has all three. He slips out of...

Zacchaeus isn’t a billionaire, just wealthier than the average person. While his name means “clean” or “innocent,” he has come about his money in suspicious ways. As the chief tax collector,...

As my preschool-aged daughter helped me color a sign for a protest against racial injustice, we talked about how people have been marching, resisting, and protesting for decades before us. Since...

My eight-year-old hands clung to the bright red Good News Bible as Mrs. Messersmith taught my Sunday school class how to open to the Psalms in the middle of the book....

In the poetry of Psalm 119, God is the teacher, and God’s people are the students. Creation is the classroom, and the lessons are the laws or teachings of God. Learning...

After the prophet Habakkuk files his complaint with the Most High God, he stands at his watch post, waiting for God to respond. He stays awake, tossing and turning all night,...

“Are we there yet?” whines the small voice from the back seat. While incessant complaining irritates parents and makes short road trips seem interminable, it’s a sign that children trust us....

The two men in today’s reading go up to the Temple to pray. The Temple was a place of restoration. When Jesus healed a man with leprosy (see Matthew 8:1-4), he...

Jesus’ parables frequently end with a twist, a reversal of conventional thought. Today’s reading is full of reversal. It describes two persons who go to the Temple to pray. One is...