Seek Shalom for Your Enemies
The Gospel reading this week tells the story of Jesus’ encounter with ten lepers in Luke 17:11-19. The geography of this story matters. Jesus is traveling from Galilee to Jerusalem. He is in a region “between Galilee and Samaria.” (Remember, the Jews in Jesus’ day...
Summer Gallery 2025
Enjoy my gallery of artwork from the Summer of 2025.
Lazarus and the Rich Man | A Visual Commentary on Luke 16:19-31
Jesus tells a parable in Luke 16:19-31 about a poor man named Lazarus and a wealthy man who die on the same day. I can’t make sense out of this parable unless I go back to Luke 15:1, start from there, and roll into the parable within the context of the larger...
Why Would God Ask Abraham to Sacrifice Isaac in Genesis 22:1-14?
Text for the Narrative Lectionary on September 14, 2025: Genesis 21:1-3, 22:1-14.
The challenge for the Narrative Lectionary preacher this week is two-fold:
First, the story gap. Second, Why would God ask Abraham to Sacrifice Isaac?
Why Does Jesus Tell Us to Hate in Luke 14:25-33?
This week’s Gospel reading (Luke 14:25–33) is a hard one. Jesus turns to the crowd and says:
“Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple.”
That word—hate—lands with a sting. It was provocative in Jesus’ day, and it feels even sharper in ours. What could he possibly mean?
In this visual meditation, I slow down and enter the text with my pen, letting images, movement, and scripture interweave. As I draw, I listen for the deeper challenge of discipleship: Is Jesus calling us to despise our families? Or, is there something deeper? Is he calling us to deal with the cost of following him.