When the tribal elders of the Hebrews went to Samuel to demand a king, he tried to dissuade them with a long list of burdens they would have to accept by having an absolute ruler over them (1 Sm ...

Every so often, a particular sermon stirs a congregation—and their pastor!—in stronger ways than usual. It happened with this sermon. I suspect that the theme of the passage had a lot to do with this.

The scholars who put together the lectionary, the great cycles of shared Scripture readings in the church’s liturgy, may have decided to plug in a short and peculiar Gospel today about Jesus’ ...