This Sunday’s readings—from Deuteronomy and Mark—repeat the Shema Yisrael. That proclamation—“Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our Lord, the Lord alone!”—is what every devout Jew declares every day. The ...

It’s a new year, and with that comes the long-time tradition of making a list of resolutions and the relatively new advent of choosing a word of the year. Everyone’s resolutions and words are ...

Author’s Note: Interested readers can find all previous volumes of this series here. When I started writing this study, I planned to avoid mentioning the election. Besides, my last pre-election ...

Did you know there are over 1000 “commandments” in the New Testament? That is almost twice as many as the religious Jews identified from their Torah (first five books of the Old Testament – 613 of ...

What is the purpose of my humanity? Many a philosopher and theologian have asked this question. Jesus Christ answered it in his own words in Mark 12:30-31: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart ...

Why Jesus doesn’t give a straightforward answer to questions about the greatest commandment. A scribe came to Jesus and asked, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?” (Mark 12:28). It ...

The church we go to is a part of a larger group that has the word evangelical in it's name. I've never really understood exactly what that means. I know that we never stand and wave our hands in the ...

As a pastor in the Christian tradition, I find my mind turning once again toward the language of my faith. More specifically, I’ve been thinking about how the Christian life has been anchored in what ...

On Oct. 20, I stood before the U.S. Capitol with other leaders of faith to highlight for Congress and other U.S. leaders a topic not too common on Capitol Hill and in our public discourse: the ...

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as ...