20 JUN. 2024 · In this episode Eli’s daughter-in-law goes into premature labor due to the Ark of God’s being captured.  She dies in childbirth, but is able to name the baby.  The name, Ichabod, means “The Glory is Gone.”  As the episode continues, the Philistines gloat about the ark.  But it wreaks havoc in Philistia for six months, at which time the Philistines send the ark back to Israel.  They do it in such a way that it eliminates any chance that the damage done by the ark was coincidental.

18 JUN. 2024 ·  It is based on 1 Samuel 4:1-18.  In this episode, Samuel is poised to speak, but says nothing.  In fact, he does not even appear in what follows.  Instead, Israel and Philistia square off in battle.  Inexplicably, Israel loses.  Figuring that God had not shown up, the Israelites make sure that God appears by bringing the Ark of God into the next battle.  Israel nevertheless loses again.  Worse, Eli’s two sons are killed and Philistia captures the Ark. 

18 JUN. 2024 · It is based on 1 Samuel 3.  In this episode, Samuel begins as an apprentice priest and ends up as a prophet recognized by all Israel.  In the story itself, God calls out to Samuel four times.  The first two times, neither Samuel nor Eli have a clue about who is speaking.  The third time, though, Eli perceives that the voice belongs to God.  When God calls to Samuel for a fourth time, the deity announces judgment on Eli’s priestly house, primarily due to the egregious behavior of his two sons.  Samuel has to deliver this bad news to Eli.  The episode concludes by letting us know that God has replace a dominant priestly ministry with a dominant prophetic ministry.

18 JUN. 2024 · It is based on 1 Samuel 2.  In this episode, Hannah prays.  In this prayer she not only praises God but also presents God as a God of reversals.  Simply, God trumps human conventional power with unconventional power.  After the prayer, we learn that Samuel is growing religiously, that Eli blesses Hannah and her husband, that this blessing eventuates in more children, that Eli’s sons were corrupt priests, and that the priestly House of Eli will soon experience judgment.

18 JUN. 2024 · n this episode, only a single family is in focus: Elkanah and his two wives: Hannah and Peninnah.  Hannah was childless; Peninnah had sons and daughters.  Peninnah made Hannah’s life miserable because of this circumstance.  When the family was in Shiloh worshipping, Hannah prayed that her situation be reversed.  Eventually, that prayer was answered and subsequently she gave birth to a son: Samuel.  So far, only one family appears to be involved.  But that is about to change, and change dramatically.  

18 JUN. 2024 · Text: Acts 1:15-26.  In this story, Peter and the fledging community of Jesus’ followers needed to replace the disgrace Judas to ensure that the twelve apostles are able to sustain that number.  Twelve is significant in that Jesus’ mission was to the lost house of Israel.  The twelve disciples correspond to the twelve tribal units of Israel.  The group did two things to discern God’s will: Pray and Cast Lots.  The choice was Matthias, who is never heard from again.  While this text should not be used to advocate using dice for ecclesiastical decision making, combining prayer and casting of lots at least suggests that we exercise considerable humility when discerning God’s will.  Sometimes, knowing God’s will is maddeningly elusive.

18 JUN. 2024 ·   In this Podcast, I suggest that the differences among these accounts are not the result of faulty eyewitnesses.  Instead, they have to do with the differing theological perspectives of the various Gospels.  Attempts to harmonize these texts are ill-advised.  This is because harmonization creates a text that no one wrote or read.  The Christian community canonized not a harmony of the Gospels, but Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

1 MAY. 2024 · This story is found in John 20—21.  Mary Magdalen goes to the tomb, finds the stone rolled away, and dashes off to tell Simon Peter and another disciple.  The two disciples run to the tomb themselves.  They both notice graveclothes, but no corpse.  The other disciple believed, but what he believed is unspecified.  They then go home.  Mary stays around and enters the tomb, whereupon she sees two angels.  They want to know why she is crying.  Right then Jesus appears, but is not recognized by Mary.  Eventually, they speak and she recognizes him.  She reports this to the other disciples.  Later that day Jesus appears to the other disciples, showing them his hands and feet.  They are pleased, but say nothing.  Thomas is there later but doubt their report that Jesus is alive.  He wants evidence.  More than a week later, Jesus is with the disciples again, this time Thomas is present.  Though invited to touch Jesus’ wounds, Thomas declares, “My Lord and my God.”  In the last scene, Jesus prepares a breakfast of fish and bread for the disciples.  Jesus’ offering of breakfast imitates Jesus previously feeding the multitude with fish and bread.  The scene concludes when Jesus asks three times whether Peter loves him.  Jesus says as much three times in response.   Keep in mind that Peter had once betrayed Jesus by denying that he knew him three times.

1 MAY. 2024 ·   This story derives from chapter 24.  It begins with several women going to Jesus’ tomb with spices.  When they arrive, the stone to the entrance has been removed.  The women look it, but see no body.  Instead, they encounter two men who want to know why the women are looking for the dead among the living.  Astounded, the women go to the disciples and other followers of Jesus to tell them what happened.  But they are not believed.  On that same day, two from Jesus’ inner circle encounter Jesus on the Road to Emmaus.  However, they do not recognize him until he eats with them.  When they are telling the other followers what had happened, Jesus appears.  He ensures that they know that his resurrection was a bodily resurrection.  He also teaches the group what the Scripture says about him.  The chapter ends with Jesus’ commissioning the group, followed by his ascension.

1 MAY. 2024 ·  In this Gospel, the accent is on disbelief and doubt.  The women who first went to the tomb were afraid to tell anyone what they had encountered, even though the young man in a white robe had told them that Jesus was risen.  In the longer version of the chapter (Mark 16), the details are markedly different but the outcome is the same.  Mary Magdalene did report what she saw but no one believed her.  Then, Jesus appeared to a couple of people who subsequently told his disciples and other followers.  But they were disbelieved, too.  Finally, Jesus appeared to the eleven disciples but had to scold them for being hard-hearted and lacking belief.  Jesus then admonished them to preach the gospel, which would be accompanied by a number of dubious signs.