Jesus asks his disciples who people say he is, and Peter confesses him as the Messiah. Every age must answer the Jesus question anew, not only in doctrine but in lived allegiance. Which Jesus are we confessing with our words, our politics, and our way of life?...

A Syrophoenician woman persists in asking Jesus to heal her daughter, and her bold faith is honored. Those outside the circle sometimes teach the insiders what mercy looks like. What might marginalized voices reveal to the church about the wideness of God’s mercy?...

So he told them this parable: “Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my lost sheep....

Now as they went on their way, he entered a certain village where a woman named Martha welcomed him. She had a sister named Mary, who sat at Jesus’s feet and listened to what he was saying. But Martha was distracted by her many tasks, so she came to him and asked, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her, then, to help me.” But the Lord answered her,...

An expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he said, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” He said to him, “What is written in the law? What do you read there?” He answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind and your neighbor as yourself.” And he said to him, “You have given the right answe...