Exploring Our Lord’s Parables “All this Jesus said to the crowds in parables; indeed, he said nothing to them without a parable.” Matthew 13 May 25 Session One Luke 8: 4 -15 The Parable of the Sower June 1 Session Two Luke 10: 29-37 The Parable of the Good Samaritan June 8 Session…
The Book of Judges contains a diverse collection of stories set in the 13th and 12th centuries BCE. In this period, the twelve tribes of Israel formed a very loose confederation. These tribes, along with various Canaanite tribes occupied the inland hill-country of what is Modern Israel. People known as “Philistines” dominated the coastal…
Paul’s Letter to Timothy The Second Letter of Paul to Timothy is the most intimate and personal of the epistles attributed to Paul. It is addressed to a young man who had been a companion to Paul on many of his missionary journeys. Like Paul, Timothy was a Jew who had a Greek or…
The Sermon on the Mount In chapters five, six, and seven of Matthew’s gospel, we find a collection of the teachings of Jesus. In these teachings, Jesus is challenging the people of that day to rethink their understanding of the Hebrew Scriptures. He is speaking to a first-century Jewish audience. Join us this fall…
“Who Do You Say That I Am?” Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi; and on the way he asked them, “Who do people say that I am?” And they answered him, “John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.” He asked them, “But who…
The Prophet Jeremiah The prophet Jeremiah lived in one of the most chaotic and tragic periods in the history of Israel and the Middle East. During his lifetime the Assyrian Empire collapsed and the region came under the control of the Babylonians. This was also a period of great religious conflict and strife in…
First, Second, and Third John The New Testament canon includes three books attributed to someone named John. These three very brief documents are sometimes referred to as letters or epistles. The first reads like a sermon or essay. The other two are more like memoranda. They appear to have been composed early in the second…
Elijah the Prophet For our Jewish friends, the Passover supper is the most important meal of the year. It is known as the Seder. At the table that evening there is always an empty chair and, on the table, an empty wine glass. This place is reserved for Elijah who just might come in…
Listening for the Voice of God The writers of the Old Testament included quite a few stories about a prophet named Samuel. One of those stories is our lectionary reading for today. The setting for this story is in a place called Shiloh. Long before Solomon built his famous temple in Jerusalem there were…
The Gospel of John includes several collections of the sayings of Jesus that are not found in the other three gospels. Some of these sayings are said to be from his public teaching but the audience for most of them consists exclusively of his inner circle of disciples. As we revisit these familiar…