Samuel asks David’s father Jesse, “Is this all your sons?” The answer turns out to be “No.” What would have happened if Samuel hadn’t asked? What happens when we don’t ask that question?

Sometimes the help we give or get creates new problems, like when the Israelites escaped Egypt and then realized they didn’t have any water. Moses got upset that people were asking for water, but God told Moses to get busy helping them get it.

When Nicodemus meets Jesus at night, Jesus tells him he has to be born again, born of the wind, to see the Kingdom of God. What does that mean?

Immediately after a voice from heaven has declared him God’s beloved Son, the devil demands Jesus prove that he’s the Son of God by doing what the devil tells him to do. Something focused on himself.

We often think of temptation as something obvious that we know we aught to resist, but more often, we don’t even notice temptation at all because it’s very boring and comes disguised as good reasons why we can’t, or shouldn’t, love our neighbors.

Sometimes people in positions of power demand that people they have hurt and abused “forgive” them even though they haven’t done anything to attempt to make it right, or even stopped engaging in the harm they’ve caused. Is it right to forgive them? Is it even possible?

When we pray, “Give us this day our daily bread,” what are we asking for, exactly? It is not just bread; it is everything we need for our lives. And who is “us”? The whole human family. That being the case, can we become part of the answer to our own prayers?

When we pray “Thy Will Be Done,” what are we asking for? Will God’s will be done no matter what? How does God’s will relate to evil? How can we do God’s will in our lives? Our version of the Lord’s Prayer this morning is from The Message.

With all that’s wrong in the world, Jesus appears saying God’s kingdom is near and teaches us to pray “Thy Kingdom Come.” God’s Kingdom, defined loosely (but never explicitly defined by Jesus) is God’s alternative re-imagining of the way the world works. Ada María Isasi-Díaz borrowed the term “kin-dom” from a friend who was a…

In this second message on the Lord’s Prayer, we discuss “Hallowed be thy name.” Holiness is often imagined as something scary, perhaps God killing people for not being appropriately respectful, or sending tornadoes because the Wrong People are being included, but if our understanding of God is to be (rightly) rooted in the person of…