This story is strange and disturbing. On one level, Jepthah was one of Israel’s most formidable judges, a great warrior, brave, strong, intelligent – and profoundly insecure, though that’s the last word he would have used to describe himself. In a moment of...

“Saul arose from the ground and when his eyes were opened, he could see nothing.“ Before we contemplate the figure of Saul in his darkness, let us think about people in our contemporary world who feel as if they live in darkness: the man in the doctor’s office who has...

Early one July morning in 1944, in the little town of Bedford, Virginia, located halfway between Lynchburg and Roanoke, Virginia, a young woman working as a teletype operator at a drug store typed in her usual message to the central operator: “Good morning. Bedford....

As we begin this sermon this morning, I want you to do something for me. I want you to reach out to the person nearest to you, take their hand and squeeze it gently for a moment. . . . now let it go. . . . You have just demonstrated the most effective and powerful...

I want you young people to know that you have been subjected to a subliminal message, a subliminal message that is being communicated to you by your parents, grandparents, Sunday School teachers, ministers and mentors – a message which, next to the words, “We love...