1 Kings 17:1-16 [17-24] Elijah is one of the big names in the Bible. People this Jesus is him, and that should place him in the power and memory structure of the people of God. So it isn’t really surprising that God does some work to keep Elijah alive during a famine. The first way in which God keeps Elijah alive is…

2 Samuel 7:1-17 The question of the past 7 months has been what comes next? When can we do the thing? When can we stop doing the thing? And that question and search is happening in Samuel as well. The people and David are in Jerusalem. The ark is in Jerusalem. There is a palace for the king. So what comes next?…

1 Samuel 1:9-11, 19-20; 2:1-10 If you’ve sensed a recurring title this fall, then you’ve been paying attention. If not, this is the third sermon this fall titled “In the Middle.” We find ourselves in the middle once more. Hannah has grown up and lived in a religious household that has followed God. She is married, but she has had no children.…

Exodus 12:1-13; 13:1-8 The Passover story is an old one, a powerful one, and one that Christians often put to the side as we celebrate the sacrifice of the Lamb who is Christ. Our Jewish neighbors still hold it up as important, if that that isn’t important to us, Jesus held it up as an important celebration. That should get our attention.…

Genesis 37:3-8, 17b-22, 26-34; 50:15-21 Biblical stories are funny things. We make heroes and we make villains. Some characters get lots of air time, and some get none. We know some stories, and we have no idea about other stories. Joseph gets a lot of air time. He’s really the connection between the line of Abraham and the story of Moses. Often…

Genesis 2:4b-7, 15-17; 3:1-8 This is the second creation story related in Genesis. We don’t read the whole thing here, but we do get most of the action. We need to unpack the baggage we have in this passage, and do some work with what’s actually in the text, not what was in our children’s story Bibles once upon a time, or…