The philosophy exam question was, simply, “Why?” Many students pondered long and wrote much, but one student aced the exam quickly with the answer, “Because.” Why is a profound human question; is because a sufficient answer? The Gospel of Mark ends with the Greek word gar. “Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled…
“Jehovah Jireh, my provider, his grace is sufficient for me, for me, for me.” Maybe you remember this praise song from the 1980’s. It comes from the difficult, but climactic, story of God’s test of Abraham to sacrifice Isaac in Genesis 22. Jehovah Jireh is an expression of trust. In February we started the retirement…
Never before have I been stunned into stilled silence after watching a feature in a movie theatre. And it wasn’t just me. As the credits rolled, I did not notice anyone standing to stretch their legs or beginning to gather their belongings. It seemed to me that all of us were sitting in awe at…
In the season of Lent, we reflect on aspects of Jesus’ suffering for us. Unfortunately, the story of Barabbas has been radically misused against the Jewish people throughout church history. Barabbas is significant enough that all four Gospel writers reference him. Matthew tells us that he was “a well-known prisoner” and might even give him…
The first way that many children encounter the Bible is through stories – concrete events that happen to a person of interest and that reveal something about all humans and about the God who created them. Even as we get older, the narrative parts of Scripture continue to resound in our lives. They may also…
“We in the West basically boil memory down to factual recall or lack thereof,” says Dr. Megan Roberts, but that’s not what most biblical authors mean when they say “remember.” Roberts teaches the Old Testament at Prairie College in Three Hills, Alberta. When she first started her research into memory, she was struck by the…
Not too far away from my home, logging companies have plans to log the headwaters and mid-reaches of several small creeks. According to laws, they must do a survey to determine if the creeks and rills are fish-bearing. If there are sections of the creeks that don’t have fish, dry up in summer or are…
When I was in my early twenties, I visited the bookstore of Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota, and purchased a copy of The Daily Office, edited by Herbert Lindemann and published by Concordia in 1965. A small volume, it nevertheless runs to nearly 700 pages and includes liturgies for morning and evening prayer organized…
In the age of music streaming services, listening to an entire album is becoming less common. Albums are structured around singles that will garner as much attention and radio play as possible or risk being forgotten. Paul Simon’s most recent album is the antithesis of such an approach. As noted on his official website, “Seven…
I received my first Bible when I was seven years old. It arrived book by book as each volume was produced in Braille. The first were the Gospel of Matthew and Acts of the Apostles, and I read them voraciously until the next ones arrived. When they did, I stood back and gazed admiringly at…
She is not one of the better-known women of the Bible and appears in only a few verses at the beginning of the gospel of Luke (2:36-39). The prophet Anna endured a long life and saw some of the most difficult events in Israel’s troubled history. As a descendant of Jacob’s son Asher, she is…
Some are named, some are hidden. Some are unexpectedly front and centre, others are obscure. These are the women who are connected to the birth of Jesus, many of whom are marginalized both in their culture and in our readings. All of them are seeking to birth hope in a world where the powerful seem…
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