I am a huge fan of This American Life. Their story-based journalism is so rich, so true, so deeply human that on any given Monday (when the new podcast drops) I will listen on the commute to or from work and will regularly be moved from raucous laughter (alone…in my car…really) to tears as they offer up these incredible slivers of light into what it means to be human. This week’s podcast is a recording of a live show they recently did at the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Opera House, and while I’d commend the whole show (audio and, this week, video!), it’s really just one of the opening lines from host and producer Ira...

What’s the last great book you read? You know what I mean, the kind of book that you wanted to take with you on vacation to read while at the beach or lake. Or maybe it’s the book you just couldn’t put down after work, or stayed up at night to finish, or wanted to share with a friend. That’s an awesome experience, isn’t it? When you just lose yourself in a book and the story stays with you way after you’ve finished the last page and closed the cover. Book designer Adam Greene wants people to have that kind of experience with the Bible. Because, let’s face it, most of us don’t. But while many of us assume the problem is either...

In working through Matthew’s Passion for our Lenten Devotions this year, I’ve been struck again by some of the really difficult elements of his story. In particular, at several points he seems to work pretty hard to exonerate the Romans, and particularly Pontius Pilate, of responsibility for Jesus’ death and to cast that responsibility and blame onto the Jewish religious authorities and crowds. All of the gospels do that to some degree or another, but Matthew goes to greater lengths (although John’s Gospel comes in a close second). His is the only passion narrative, for instance, in which Pilate washes his hands of Jesus’...

Churches that stem from the Reformation have for centuries valued and cultivated an educated clergy. We have sought out persons with gifts for ministry and supported them to go to college and seminary. As a result, we have been blessed with generations of capable, profession leaders. Yet while this has benefited us as a church tremendously, one of the unintended consequences of such competent leadership has been a loss of skill and confidence among those our pastors lead. That is, because we can rely so completely on the skill of the pastor – whether to lead a Bible study, interpret Scripture, or pray – the rest of us haven’t had to...

My teacher and mentor Timothy Wengert started a blog not too long ago that offers weekly meditations on the Psalms. Except these aren’t just meditations. In 2001, Tim and his wife Barbara discovered that Barb had terminal cancer. Throughout that year and the next, before Barb died in May of 2001, they would read a Psalm together each night. And each morning the next day, Tim would send an email to their daughter Emily, who was away at college, with the Psalm and his reflections. Now Tim is posting those reflections on his blog once a week in relation to the Sunday reading of the Psalm in the lectionary. Which is what makes these...

Think you know the story of David and Goliath? Think again. In the hands of Malcolm Gladwell, the story of David and Goliath takes on new meaning. Or rather, Gladwell turns our typical interpretation of this classic biblical story on its head. As Gladwell points out, we tend to read the David and Goliath story as the tale of an improbable victory of a relative weakling over a mighty warrior. Indeed, the phrase has been so incorporated into our language that many use it – in describing the underdog victory of one sports team over another, for instance – without even knowing its source. But as Gladwell tells it, the story is really about a...