…Our soul, or spirit, is our entire essence. Spiritually speaking. is the energizing force of each human being, breathed into us by God at creation, and it’s where our intellect and our conscience reside. Through the soul we can understand God as an immortal essence, and we can comprehend and treasure things like justice and honesty. Our soul is who we are created to be. Because the soul is immortal, we can trust in life beyond the lifespan of these bodies. [ii]

So what, then, is the heart? The heart and the soul are inextricable from one another. The heart is a part of the soul. The heart is our emotional and moral center. While the soul is entirely God’s, and can influence the heart, the heart is also open to other influences, not from God. Last week I spoke of the questions we may ask of God—the Why questions. These come from the heart, because the heart is open to all experiences and may well wonder why God permits the things that happen in our world…

Image: Mosaic from Lullingstone Villa, a 4th century house-church in the British Isles, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=54395 [retrieved May 29, 2026]. Original source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mharrsch/135554275/.

…Through Calvin I learned that God is revealed to us both through the world we live in AND through scripture. Here’s the passage.

Since the perfection of blessedness consists in the knowledge of God, he has been pleased, in order that none might be excluded… not only to deposit in our minds that seed of religion of which we have already spoken, but so to manifest his perfections in the whole structure of the universe, and daily place himself in our view, that we cannot open our eyes without being compelled to behold him.[i]

 Long story short, God is always putting Godself right in our faces. A howling rainstorm. Seeds we plant, which then sprout and grow. A sunset. The mighty pounding of ocean waves. The gentle trickle of a flowing river. In her gorgeous novel, The Color Purple, Alice Walker has her character Shug describe it this way:

 “I think it [ticks] God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don’t notice it.”[ii] Shug trusts that God created the universe and made it gloriously beautiful, including the color purple in a field, for us….

Image: Andō, Tadao, 1941-. Interior of the Church of the Light, Ibaraki Kasugaoka Church, Ibaraki, Japan, 1999. From Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=58956 [retrieved May 29, 2026]. Original source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Church_of_Light.JPG.

…Our world, alas, does not seem to be aligned with Jesus’s teaching on this matter. And let’s be honest with ourselves. This teaching is not unique to Jesus. He draws on his own tradition, which today we know as Judaism, where love of God and neighbor—especially our vulnerable neighbor—take precedence. Islam emphasizes two types of love—divine love and human love. Hinduism teaches five stages of love. Buddhism teaches four elements of true love. Sikhism emphasizes love for God and God’s creation as one of five chief virtues. Christians don’t own “love God and love neighbor.” It is taught in every major religion.

Still, there seems to a dearth of love, which the world sorely needs. Dozens upon dozens of wars are raging on—not just the ones we hear about in the news. Nations are divided against themselves, and our own nation is a prime example of that division. There rise of the scapegoats is with us, people being singled out so that others can cast their scorn, derision, and hatred upon them. These are all distinctly unloving actions…

Image: Tiffany, Louis Comfort, 1848-1933. View of Oyster Bay, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=57751 [retrieved June 12, 2026]. Original source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/bobistraveling/6886465855.

… As I prepare to enter the next chapter of my life, I look at the scripture I read a few minutes ago. In Matthew 13:31-32, Jesus compares the Kingdom of Heaven to a mustard seed. Though it is one of the smallest seeds, it grows into the largest tree that provides shelter for birds. When Jesus told this parable, he taught us an important lesson about growth and potential.

In today's world, it is easy to feel small as an individual and doubt your ability to make change. Because of this, young people wonder whether our voices matter or whether we are ready for the responsibilities that lie ahead. As I prepare to graduate and begin a new journey, I feel some of that uncertainty myself.

But the mustard seed reminds us that God does not measure us by our size, age, or experience. God sees what we can become…

Image: Anonymous, Parable of the Mustard Seed, a painted window at the YMCA training center for German leadership in Kassel, Germany. Circa: 2000. Photo by tin.G. From Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=55890 [retrieved May 29, 2026]. Original source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/tin-g/90272565.

…The original formula of Trinity is this: God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, or as theologian Sandra Schneiders described it, two men and a bird. And for two millennia, this has held: the central language we know for the Trinity is male. Even the Spirit, which in Greek is a neutral noun and in Hebrew is a feminine noun, is often given masculine pronouns. In an interview and in her writing, Schneiders asked the question: Why has the church limited the language we use for so long, when scripture itself offers us the images of God as diverse as mother, father, friend, sower, baker, lamb, gate, water, wind, fire, and light? In fact, the solidification of our understanding of God as being male when our theology reminds us that God is pure spirit has resulted in harm to women throughout the ages, harm that still carries forward to our day. To quote another theologian, Mary Daly, “If God is male, then male is God.”…


Image: Joó, Zoltán. Holy Trinity, painted coffered ceiling (Public Art) in the doorway of the Holy Spirit Church, Veresegyház, Hungary. from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=57916 [retrieved May 26, 2026]. Original source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Coffered_ceiling_by_Zolt%C3%A1n_Jo%C3%B3,_Holy_Spirit_Church,_2019_Veresegyh%C3%A1z.jpg.

It’s interesting… let’s say, it’s important… that our passage begins with the sentence, “When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in the same place.” In fact, they were waiting for Pentecost. Not this Pentecost, which, this year, we are celebrating with fiery balloons, and streamers, and the color red, and the sound of the bells of angels in our sanctuary. But their Pentecost, the Jewish feast of Pentecost. While our Pentecost celebrates the birth of the church—the coming of the Spirit of the living God in a wild and unmistakable and overwhelming way—the Jewish Pentecost celebrates God’s gift of the Torah, the law, the moment when Moses descends from Mount Sinai with the tablets, his face shining with the light of God, Godself. My understanding is that devout Jews await this by getting together for all-nighters, during which they study Torah—the first five books of the bible—and eat things that contain milk and honey, such as ice cream and cheesecake. I would like to put in a request to the Presbyterian powers-that-be that we, too, find a way to get in on this deal, because it sounds amazing.

But back to the important thing: the disciples, who are named in chapter 1 as consisting of both women and men, are all together in one room. And it’s my bet that, they, too, are studying Torah with all their might, continuing to seek out the wisdom that God has for them in this liminal, transitional moment.

Because Jesus is gone. Again. Gone from their sight and touch and tables. And Jesus has given them all kinds of words of encouragement, and wisdom, and the promise that the Spirit of the living God is coming, but they don’t know when…

Image: Isaac Helgeson-Roode, Radial Design, block cut, 2026. Used with permission of the artist.

…At Jesus’s arrival in Bethany, Martha goes out from the house to meet him. By Martha’s calculations, Jesus is late. Her first words are, “Rabbi, if you had been here, my brother would never have died.” Do we hear reproach in Martha’s voice? Is she angry? We have only words on page. We don’t have access to the faces, the eyes, or the hands of Martha and Jesus, so often those revealers of our innermost selves.

But the next words out of Martha’s mouth take on a different tone. This is not a reproach; it’s a plea. And not only a plea, but a strong statement of faith: “Yet even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you”…


Image: Vincent Van Gogh, “The Raising of Lazarus” (1890, in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, France), Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Public Domain.

…The Sadducees have an issue with resurrection. The issue is, they don’t believe in it. That Jesus has a reputation for raising people from the dead doesn’t sit well with them, and they probably don’t believe that he’s done any such thing. In fact, they don’t believe in the immortality of the soul, and they don’t believe in heaven or hell. They do believe in the importance of scripture, and also in philosophical and religious debate. And they believe that human beings have free will.

But today, their concern is resurrection. They bring this riddle to Jesus: Whose wife will she be in the afterlife (which they don’t believe in), after marrying all seven brothers?

I’ve told lots of you about my mother, growing up in church, attending a religious school, and asking a lot of questions. So many, that the teacher finally asked her, “Are you a convert, dear?” Asking questions was not necessarily a good thing in that context. The answer, my mother said, was almost always, “It’s a mystery.”

This is true. So much of our faith is a mystery. Surely resurrection, of all things, is the greatest of these. It makes no sense. There is no explanation. And trying to understand takes you down a long and frustrating road.

Still, it holds us. It captivates us. At least once a year, we ponder it at some length. We sit in the stillness of wonder.

Or, maybe we don’t….


Image: Leonard Nimoy, Shekhina, Photograph, 93-4, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=54186 [retrieved March 26, 2026]. Original source: www.RMichelson.com -- courtesy R. Michelson.

There once was a great, joyful story,

That started with sadness and worry.

Though Jesus had died,

God’s power applied,

And Jesus was raised up in glory!

And yet, that great tale was not ended

Because all whom Jesus befriended,

Still playing the blues,

Awaited the news,

Upstairs in a room well-defended…

Image: Thomas Touches Jesus’ Side (Anonymous), 10th Century, Ivory carving, Bode-Museum, Berlin, Germany, http://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=58937.

I know you won’t believe me.

You won’t believe what I have to say, what we have to say, but it’s true.

We swear to you on all that is holy. This is what happened….

Image: Hildreth M. Meiere, Mosaic of the Resurrection, 1951, Washington National Cathedral, Washington, D. C., detail, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=55307 [retrieved January 29, 2026]. Original source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/laurapadgett/2533189887/.

…Here are some—but not all!—of the awkward points at the Last Supper:

This is Thursday. On Wednesday—which the church calls, Spy Wednesday—Judas goes to the religious leaders of Jerusalem. He offers them information as to where and when to arrest Jesus, and, in return, they pay him 30 pieces of silver—and an internet search tells me that would be the equivalent of about $1,200.00.

And now, that same Judas is at table, in the upper room. And Jesus is there, too, along with all his inner circle of friends and followers.

That’s awkward.

And no sooner have Jesus and his friends taken their places around the table than Jesus makes an announcement: Truly, I tell you: one of you will betray me tonight.

That’s awkward.

The disciples, having absolutely no chill, begin to say, “Is it I, Lord? Did I betray you?” Which is kind of sweet, actually. Finally, it’s Judas’s turn to ask, and he is the only one to whom Jesus gives a direct answer:

“You said it.”

That’s extremely awkward…

Image: Swanson, John August. Last Supper, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=56552 [retrieved January 29, 2026]. Original source: Estate of John August Swanson, https://www.johnaugustswanson.com/.

…In their book “The Last Week,” theologians Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan wrote about two parades that were occurring on that day. One parade was the one we know so well as Jesus's triumphal entry into Jerusalem. On the other side of town, a very different parade took place. In one parade, an itinerant preacher, healer, and wonder-worker, rode into town on, according to the Gospel of Matthew, both a colt and a donkey; that is about as strange and humble an entrance as you could hope for. On the other side of town, Pontius Pilate rode into town on a war horse. Jesus's triumphal entry consisted of people singing psalms such as Psalm 118, pilgrims eagerly climbing up the Temple mount to begin the Passover celebration. The entry of Pontius Pilate, on the other hand, consisted of a legion of Rome’s finest, both marching and on horseback, wearing armor as if for battle. In one parade palm branches were joyfully waved as people cried out “Hosanna!” In the other parade, weapons were held high. This parade was designed to intimidate the people of Jerusalem. This parade was designed to control and end anything that might smack of an uprising…

Image: Koenig, Peter. Palm Sunday, 20th century, United Kingdom, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=58531 [retrieved January 29, 2026]. Original source: Peter Winfried (Canisius) Koenig, https://www.pwkoenig.co.uk/.

How shall we live? This is the question at the beating heart of this parable. How shall we live while we are waiting?

As Jesus’ moves toward the end of his time on earth, he turns his attention to end of all things and times. The parable we’ve just shared normally shows up in the lectionary shortly before the beginning of Advent. However, Jesus shares it during Holy Week, as he is preaching in the Temple. The day is probably Wednesday, called “Spy” Wednesday, because it is the day Judas approached the high priests with information about Jesus, and was paid with 40 pieces of silver.

In chapter 25, Jesus shares three parables, and this is the first. Jesus is speaking of the final judgement, the moment when the kingdom of the heavens will be fulfilled. As scholar Rolf Jacobson puts it, it is the moment when God’s preferred outcome finally breaks into human life. As I would put it, it is the great healing that will take place, to all God’s creation, humans included…

Image: Friedrich Wilhelm von Schadow, 1789-1862. Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins, detail, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=54277 [retrieved January 29, 2026]. Original source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Schadow,FW-Die_klugen_und_t%C3%B6richten_Jungfrauen-2.JPG.

What would you do for someone you love? I imagine you already know the answer to this. You might cook them a delicious meal. You might rake their leaves, or mow their lawn. You would speak kindly to them. You would offer them a listening ear. You would fluff up the pillow in a comfortable chair for them to sit in when they visited you.

There are other kinds of things you could do, of course. You could tell them how much they meant to you. You could plan your whole life around them. Love is almost never entirely about what we say; it is more often about what we do. As Fred Rogers said, “We speak with more than our mouths. We listen with more than our ears.”

Our passage from the gospel according to Matthew is a kind of love story…

Lent 5- March 22

Image: Ceballos Fernández, Lázaro A.Icon: La Uncíón, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=59864 [retrieved January 29, 2026]. Original source: Beth Maczka, Beth@BethMaczka.com.

…I wonder what Jesus thinks about this theory of the Protestant Work Ethic. Having grown up well-versed in scripture, he should have agreed. He undoubtedly knew God’s instructions, given in the Ten Commandments, “Six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God…” (Exodus 20:9-10). He may well have known the Proverb,

A little sleep, a little slumber,
a little folding of the hands to rest,
and poverty will come upon you like a robber,
and want, like an armed warrior. ~Proverbs 24:33-34

And yet, Jesus tells this parable, in which people who work just one hour are paid the exact same amount as people who toiled in the vineyard for a full ancient-Palestinian shift of twelve hours…

Image: Millet, Jean François, 1814-1875. In the Vineyard, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=50342 [retrieved January 29, 2026]. Original source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jean-Fran%C3%A7ois_Millet_-_In_the_Vineyard_-_17.1487_-_Museum_of_Fine_Arts.jpg.

…At their best, families are havens where love, learning, and long-term commitment are the priorities. Not all families are able to live up to that, but most families are trying, hard.

Family is complicated. Families are complicated. And the family of Jesus is no exception…

Image: McGough, Mary Charles. Holy Family, 1988, Duluth, MN, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=57944 [retrieved January 23, 2026]. Original source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/clairity/14078166867.

… This parable makes my heart hurt, just a little. Why would one child say, “I will not do what you have asked me to do,” and then, go and do it? What was going on in the relationship between father and son? Was the son angry with his father, for some reason? It’s easier to understand why one son would say, “I will do it,” and never get to it. Maybe he had ADHD and simply forgot. I would definitely be the second son, not out of defiance, or lack of love for my parent, but because of my approach to all chores, which is to start in one room, move something to a second room, then have my attention drawn by something in there that means I never accomplish what I fully intended to do…

Image: Mironov, Andreĭ (Andreĭ Nikolaevich), 1975-. Parable of the Two Sons, 2013, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=57607 [retrieved January 23, 2026]. Original source: Please search Wikimedia commons for the source.

…Anger is all around us, from altercations with other drivers, to political disagreements that strain and even break friendships and families, to the role models we have in our leaders. All I have to do to is to pick up my phone first thing in the morning, and look at the headlines, and I can awaken anger in myself even before I am fully awake. I do not recommend this as a way to start the day.

Why are we so angry? Where does our anger come from? What can we do about it? Is there anything we can do?

Image: Laura James, Sermon on the Mount, 2010, New York, NY, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=57891 [retrieved January 23, 2026]. Original source: Laura James, https://www.laurajamesart.com/collections/religious/.

…Do we have our own ideas about what makes “good soil,” versus, what fosters poor conditions, in terms of our sharing the love of God with our neighbors? Do we limit our focus in spreading the good news to people who are mostly like us? Are we even in a position to know what “good soil” looks like?

Image: Gogh, Vincent van, 1853-1890. Sower at Sunset, 1888, painting, Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, Netherlands, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=57797 [retrieved January 23, 2026]. Original source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Van_Gogh_-_S%C3%A4mann_bei_untergehender_Sonne.jpeg.