When God is Silent
Read: Matthew 27:57-66 Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were there, sitting opposite the tomb. (v. 61) Sometimes God seems silent. A dream is crushed. A loved one dies. A diagnosis disrupts. What do we do when God is silent? Nowhere does God seem more absent than the Saturday of Holy Week. Our Lord was dead. […]
What the Women Saw
Read: Matthew 27:32-56 There were also many women there, looking on from a distance. (v. 55) I imagine the women “looking on from a distance” (v. 55) with hands covering mouths and eyes scarcely able to take in the scene. Matthew’s account offers a panoramic masterpiece with exquisite detail. We can look at it a thousand times […]
Let Us Keep the Feast
Read: Matthew 26:26-29 Take, eat; this is my body. (v. 26) As a child, I didn’t especially enjoy Communion celebrations. The service grew long, the liturgy went over my head, and children couldn’t participate. I was glad we only celebrated four times a year. As an adult, I have learned to rejoice with words from the […]
Tutoring Centers for Children in India
As Words of Hope team members in India began outreach work in northern villages, they realized that many children in the region were not attending school. The families they encountered all belonged to the lower castes. Some were afraid that their children would be mistreated by others at school because of their low caste status. […]
The King is Coming!
Read: Matthew 25:31-46 He will sit on his glorious throne. (v. 31) In Matthew 25, Jesus begins with two parables about the final judgment. In today’s text, he speaks with clarity about what will actually happen. Reading this gives me the same feeling as receiving an audit letter from the IRS! Even as it makes me […]
You Can Come!
Read: Matthew 22:1-14 Invite to the wedding feast as many as you find. (v. 9) Scott and Betsie’s wedding day was unforgettable. I was their pastor that December morning when an unrelenting Iowa blizzard upended the well-choreographed day. One by one guests called to cancel. The reception band canceled. Even the caterer canceled! However, the couple […]
Highway Robbery
Read: Matthew 21:12-17 “My house shall be called a house of prayer,” but you make it a den of robbers. (v. 13) An angry elder once cited this story of Jesus driving out the money changers from the temple courts to chastise a music group for selling CDs in the church lobby after they helped lead […]
Mixed Messages
Read: Matthew 21:1-11 Your king is coming to you, humble. (v. 5) If you go to church today you’ll likely see children waving palms and shouting “Hosanna!” As a child I didn’t understand all the waving. I usually turned my palm into a sword to joust with my peers in the front of church. It made […]
Upside Down
Read: Matthew 20:17-28 You do not know what you are asking. (v. 22) Last summer a pastor in Missouri berated his congregation for not giving him a luxury watch and other niceties. Although he later apologized, he evidently missed Jesus’ leadership memo: “Whoever would be great among you must be your servant” (v. 26). The kingdom of […]