The elders of the Jews continued to make progress in the building, supported by the message of the prophets, Haggai and Zechariah, son of Iddo. ―Ezra 6:14a Return to me—and I will return to you, say ...

The Gospel reading for December 19 contains the familiar story of Zechariah in the temple. You can read it here. It is the occasion when the Angel Gabriel appears to him to announce the birth of John ...

Zechariah prophesied to a battered Jewish people during the return from Babylonian exile. Jerusalem lay in ruins, the Temple was only beginning to be rebuilt, and the Jewish community was small, ...

We all love a good story. A well-crafted story contains a beginning, middle, and end. The plot keeps the reader engaged as conflict moves to resolution. However, it’s the characters in the story that ...

As familiar as we are with the songs of Christmas, there are four songs recorded in the Bible sung by people surrounding the birth of Jesus that aren’t sung much at all now. The angels sang a song to ...

As a rabbi in the late 60’s and 70’s, I remember trying to make Tisha b’Av relevant to my congregation by references to the Vietnam war. In the 80’s and 90’s the temporal proximity of Tisha b’Av to ...

Have you ever prayed a long time for something to happen; when it finally did happen, did you doubt the reality of God’s answer? Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth had prayed all their married life to ...

Some preachers have a nightmare of being in front of a congregation and realizing that one’s sermon notes are missing. In my days as a preacher, I sometimes dreamed that I was late for the service and ...