What is the kingdom of heaven like? Jesus seems to have a lot of different answers to that question is today’s Gospel. The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed. Or, it’s like yeast. Or, it’s like a treasure hidden in a field. Or, it’s like a pearl of great value. Or, it’s like…

Our lessons for today speak with dynamic emphasis of the power of God. In the passages from Wisdom we read of God’s presence in the life of his people, a presence combining firmness and power as well as compassion and caring. “Although you are sovereign in strength, you judge with mildness, and with great forbearance…

Everybody knows the old bit about optimists and pessimists—how a pessimist says the glass is half empty and an optimist says the same glass is half full. It’s a familiar platitude. But did you ever stop to think about how terribly important the issue here is? It really matters how you understand that glass. What…

Several weeks ago on a gray afternoon in June, tourists in Tewkesbury Abbey in England experienced something rather unusual. A pure, clear, child’s voice floated in the dim light. It reached into every corner, every chapel and chantry. No matter where you were, you could hear it. It seemed to come out of nowhere and…

There are some who love having people over to dinner or a summer barbeque. They get a kick out of opening their homes and showing off their possessions or their cooking skills. They may even rejoice in having a captive audience upon which to inflict their latest jokes or the story of last year’s vacation….

…nothing is covered that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. In a conversation with us, his disciples, Jesus encourages us to stand up for kingdom living even if it means being in conflict with the mainstream of society. You will be maligned, says Jesus, for witnessing to this mission and…

“Out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although all the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” Imagine how the Israelites must have felt hearing those words. Against all odds, and surely even against their own expectations, God had allowed this group…

At the time Matthew’s Gospel was being written, in the 80s of the first century, the city of Antioch in Syria had become the third most important city in the nascent Roman Empire. But Antioch was sitting on top of a geological fault-line that nobody understood in those days, and it had repeatedly suffered from…