We often pray because we want God to intervene in our affairs on our behalf. Some people seem to be successful at it, others not at all. Churches hold up the first as prayer warriors, paragons of virtue, lauded for their faith and admired for their devotion. As for the others, however, we question their…

Jesus criticized the Pharisees for both the quality and the quantity of their prayers. He also criticized their expectations of a quid pro quo for their prayer, fasting, and the giving of alms. I suspect most of us are like the Pharisees. We think if we pray more, longer, better, with more people, faith, sincerity,…

When I was a boy, we had an Elder in church who made very long prayers. When we saw him up on the platform we would groan. We were more concerned to time him than to listen to what he actually prayed. Most of his prayers were about 12 minutes long but could run to…

Jesus not only criticized the religion of the scribes and Pharisees—He attempted to re-define it. In the “First Woe” [see last week’s discussion] Jesus pointed out that salvation was linked to that of others, and that those who value their relationship with God and who are spiritual leaders have an obligation not to burden others…

What role do we have in each other’s salvation? How can we facilitate salvation for one another, or how can we prevent, limit, derail, undo, discourage, or otherwise impede the salvation of others? Are there clues in what Jesus said about the Pharisees in the passage we discussed last week? Moses was and is known…

In a way, the Prodigal Son was not lost, since he was able to “come to his senses” and make his way home. He had sense enough to know that if he did not come to his senses then he would be truly lost. He was able to assess his situation and remember that he…