Nicodemus comes to Jesus with everything in nice little boxes, but leaves this encounter with a reminder that - no matter how much your know - you cannot manipulate or orchestrate your way to God.
While it may sound like Jesus is adding more difficulty to the ancient Hebrew Law, as we listen closely we see that he's actually offering a type of freedom that can only come from stepping away from a 'checklist morality.'
Jesus calls his disciples to take on a righteousness that is greater than the religious experts of his day. Yet, by learning to take on his light and easy yoke, this high expectation becomes much less burdensome.
John's account of Jesus' incarnation doesn't have shepherds or angels or O Holy Nights, but it does paint a picture of Jesus as someone profoundly different than anyone who had come before.
Sometimes reality falls short of our expectations, yet Joseph's experience in Matthew 2 reminds us that God is already at work in the messiness of our lives.
Christmas is a season of waiting, and Advent reminds us of how to wait well. James gives examples of a farmer and a prophet to paint a picture of what this looks like.
We begin Advent season by remembering that where we are matters because something happened and something will happens. Because what we are waiting for determines how we wait.
Paul ends his letter with a benediction ("good word") and leaves us with a blessing of peace, love, faith and grace. Which Word is God speaking to you today?
In his famous words about the Armor of God, Paul may be thinking less about protecting ourselves from individual temptation and more about the way the church community is called to embody God's way on the earth.
Paul's message to slaves and masters would have been subversive to his first-century audience, but also speaks powerfully to our modern world in which continuity and consistency are central to living faithful Christian lives.
As Paul focuses on what relationships look like in the church, he reminds his audience that the way young people and parents interact with one another is a crucial part of their faith.
Paul's words of marriage were as challenging in his first century context as they are today. The task then, as it is now, is to truly listen and engage and submit to the word of Scripture.