Genesis 4:1-16; Hebrews 2:11-18; John 1: 29-42 “Like father, like son,” goes the saying. It was certainly true for Cain. For Adam’s sin, God’s punishment was to send him out of Eden and make him labor to bring forth food from the earth. For killing his brother Abel, God punished Cain by making sure the

Genesis 3:1-24; Hebrews 2:1-10; John 1:19-28 After the death of the prophet Malachi, no prophetic voice was heard in Israel until nearly five hundred years later, when God sent John the Baptist to prepare people for the Messiah. Coming this long after a prophetic silence, and with his call to repentance and the baptism he

Genesis 2:4-25; Hebrews 1:1-14; John 1:1-18 Genesis 2 tells the story of God creating humans to be partners with him. We are given the task of caring for the garden that God planted for us. However, we forgot that it belonged to God, and we began to make decisions on our own. What a privilege it

Genesis 1:1-2:3; Ephesians 1:3-14; John 1:29-34 John’s account of Jesus’ baptism is much different than that of the synoptic gospels. Each of those writers records Jesus coming to the Jordan to be baptized. They tell of the Holy Spirit’s descent in the form of the dove. They share the message of the heavenly voice. John’s

Isaiah 45:14-19; Colossians 1:24-2:7; John 8:12-19 How easy it is to rejoice and give thanks to God when things are going well. But when we encounter difficulties, and troubles befall us, are we so eager to sing God’s praises? Life is not always good. We are creatures broken by sin, living in a world broken

Exodus 17:1-7; Colossians 1:15-23; John 7:37-52 Scientists have theorized that there is an unseen substance in the universe called “dark matter” that exerts a force which holds everything together, making it one of the greatest mysteries in modern astrophysics. Yet, our reading from Colossians tells us that this unseen force is none other than Jesus Christ

Deuteronomy 8:1-3; Colossians 1:1-14; John 6:30-33, 48-51 “…that he might humble you…” (Deuteronomy 8:2) Just how humble did these nobodies, schlepping through the wilderness of Sinai, have to become? The indignities of forced labor—stomping straw in the mud of the Nile to make bricks—had not humbled them enough? Dirty and smelly from a forty-year march,

Isaiah 49:1-7; Revelation 21:22-27; Matthew 12:14-21 Today is Epiphany—the season of light. We celebrate Jesus, our light of the world, as manifested by the people of the world, as the Magi came to seek Jesus. The Magi represent worldly wisdom being drawn to the light of the world. This star causes them to look beyond the earthly