Isaiah 42:1-9,Matthew 1:18-25 Isaiah is perhaps the ancient version of the 5 pounds of ads that show up in the paper on Thanksgiving, or the wave of advertising emails that show up the week of Thanksgiving. They are all there telling us to get ready for what is coming. They hype us up, they build up the anticipation. Imagine, if you will,…
Esther 4:1-17 The Esther story is one that we sort of know. Often we study it because it has a woman lead, and we think that’s rare (it’s not). We think it’s the exception to the rule, and a one off type of story. If we knew our history, we’d know it isn’t. This isn’t the first time that we hear this…
Habakkuk 1:1-7;2:1-4; 3:[3b-6], 17-19 To start with, prophets are generally not sent to places in good times. The times may be bad for the people the prophet is sent to, or the times may be bad from the perspective of the one sending the prophet. In this case, we get the indication that the people are not happy with the situation. It…
We sing much of our theology. In the American Protestant Church, much of that is thanks to the work of Isaac Watts. We explore how his faith shaped his music, and how his music shapes our faith.