This Sunday’s readings—from Deuteronomy and Mark—repeat the Shema Yisrael. That proclamation—“Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our Lord, the Lord alone!”—is what every devout Jew declares every day. The ...

It’s a new year, and with that comes the long-time tradition of making a list of resolutions and the relatively new advent of choosing a word of the year. Everyone’s resolutions and words are ...

Making use of two verses from the Old Testament, Jesus declares, “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. A ...

Did you know there are over 1000 “commandments” in the New Testament? That is almost twice as many as the religious Jews identified from their Torah (first five books of the Old Testament – 613 of ...

What is the purpose of my humanity? Many a philosopher and theologian have asked this question. Jesus Christ answered it in his own words in Mark 12:30-31: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart ...

Author’s Note: Interested readers can find all previous volumes of this series here. When I started writing this study, I planned to avoid mentioning the election. Besides, my last pre-election ...

The church we go to is a part of a larger group that has the word evangelical in it's name. I've never really understood exactly what that means. I know that we never stand and wave our hands in the ...

As a pastor in the Christian tradition, I find my mind turning once again toward the language of my faith. More specifically, I’ve been thinking about how the Christian life has been anchored in what ...

In Mark 12:28-31, the Scribes asked Jesus, “What is the Great Commandment?” He responded, “The first of all the commandments is: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord, and thou shalt love the ...

During Holy Week last month, I attended a service where from the pulpit the pastor declared himself, not in so many words, a heretic. He rather gently denounced the dogmas of Augustine and embraced ...