Tuesday, April 9 — Lessons from the Suffering Servant In the book of the prophet Isaiah, there are four passages that speak of a suffering servant (42:1-4; 49:1-6; 50:4-9; 52:13-53:12). Who Isaiah had in mind in these passages is unclear, but the Church has always seen in these passages references to the redemptive suffering of […]
Sunday, April 7 — Alyosha’s Dream at the Wake for Father Zossima A reading from Frederick Buechner: IN DOSTOEVSKY’S NOVEL The Brothers Karamazov there is an extraordinary scene where the old monk Father Zossima dies. They lay him out in his coffin in the chapel, and all of the monks wait around to see a miracle—for the […]
Saturday, April 6 — Mary’s Artistry of Grace and Judas’ Shaming We pick up yesterday’s story in which Mary anointed the feet of Jesus with perfume at a dinner party her family was hosting just six days before his death. The perfume was extraordinarily expensive and filled the whole house with its fragrance. Immediately Judas […]
Friday, April 5 — The Fragrance of Grace in the Face of Death We stray from Luke’s Gospel this week to a story from John’s Gospel which we will take two days to cover. Immediately before today’s reading we hear the famous story in chapter 11 of Jesus coming to the grief-stricken home of Mary […]
Thursday, April 4 — Setting Your Mind on Serenity Today we continue with another passage from a little later in Paul’s letter to the Philippians, taking it in two segments. Philippians 4:8-9 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything […]
Wednesday, April 3 — So Much Rubbish In the church of Philippi, Paul had opponents who were holding on to the belief that to be a Christian one must first be a Jew who keeps the laws of the Torah. They seem to be attacking Paul’s Jewish pedigree. So in today’s reading from the letter […]
Tuesday, April 2 — Tears and Joy Psalm 126 When the LORD restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream. Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy; then it was said among the nations, “The LORD has done great things for them.” The LORD has […]
Monday, April 1 — The New Thing God Is Doing In Jewish Biblical history the greatest challenge to their faith occurred when what was called the Babylonian Exile took place. The Jewish people were over run by the armies of Babylonia. The temple was razed and the leading citizens were taken as prisoners to live […]
Sunday, March 31 — The Freedom to Lay Down Your Burdens The story is told of two monks who were taking a trip together. They were a part of an order of monks that required them to have no contact with women. At the beginning of the day they came to a small river that […]
Saturday, March 30 — The People We Are Becoming Our reading today is from one of Paul’s letters, in this case to the church of Corinth where people were divided up into separate, competing groups. 2 Corinthians 5:16-21 From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we […]
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