Category Archive

I simply have to begin today with an “honesty” warning because your homilist finds this Gospel passage to be very odd. It appears to be an amalgam of perhaps a few authentic words of Jesus mixed in with a whole bunch of strange, later additions which don’t even come close to sounding like anything the authentic Jesus of Nazareth might have said. Today’s reading comes in a whole section of Luke from the ninth to the nineteenth chapters which takes place on the journey to Jerusalem, though actually very little of the material demands the setting of a journey. Throughout …

“It’s funny how the nature of an object — let’s say a strawberry or a pair of socks — is so changed by the way it has come into your hands, as a gift or as a commodity. The pair of wool socks that I buy at the store, red and gray striped, are warm and cozy. I might feel grateful for the sheep that made the wool and the worker who ran the knitting machine. I hope so. But I have no inherent obligation to those socks as a commodity, as private property. […] But what if those very …

I was texting with an old friend whose mother is a presbyterian minister and mentioned that I would be preaching today. “Well,” he responded, “mom’s advice for this Sunday has always been, ‘never preach on the Trinity.’” In my own reading and reflection preparing for today’s feast, I have come to appreciate the advice Theologian Nadia Bolz-Weber states the problem succinctly: Preachers dread this day because we see it as kind of a dry dusty theological topic after the exciting and earthy part of the liturgical year that came before it. It’s like there’s this raucous party of Easter and …

In his commentary on Luke’s gospel, New Testament scholar and former Anglican bishop N. T. Wright points out that when the angels announced Jesus’ birth, they claimed the titles of the emperor, Augustus Caesar, for Jesus. The baby lying in a manger in Bethlehem, not Augustus Caesar, is the world’s Savior, Lord and Peacemaker. This bold and treasonous declaration of the angels, Wright tells us, sets up a confrontation that runs throughout the whole gospel of Luke between the Commonwealth of God proclaimed by Jesus and the Empire of Caesar. In light of the stories that follow in Luke’s gospel, …

“Stand up, take your mat, and walk,” Jesus says to the man who has had his heart set on reaching the healing waters for years. For nearly 40 years this man has been ill, and perhaps the sense of frustration is noticeable in his benumbed response to the Christ who approaches him. If for some of you the story of the healing of this man at the Pool of Bethesda is not as familiar, here is a bit of background. The earliest manuscripts of the Gospel of John don’t explain why the people who were blind, lame, and paralyzed were …

Back in the late 80s – yes, I am really old – I began a nearly three decades long involvement in a domestic and overseas service program called Volunteers in Mission or VIM. My very first experience was international, with an indigenous congregation in a small Panamanian frontier coastal town near the Costa Rican border. It was a dingy, dirty port town. I recall that we were warned not to swim at the beach which was polluted and littered with garbage and waste. We were a team of about twenty and we lived with various members of the congregation and …

I hope you also delight in hearing the readings from Acts and John during this post-Resurrection season. Last week we heard the powerful story of Saul’s conversion – from murderous antipathy of Jesus’ followers, to Paul, of belief and bold proclamation. And today, this passage with Peter restoring life to a woman shepherd, a “pastor” beloved by her community. These readings dispel my impatience with Peter – in the Gospels always jostling to be closest to Jesus; and his attestations of loyalty – that collapse into betrayal, at the worst possible moment. In last Sunday’s Gospel, Post – resurrection Peter …

John 19: 25-27 ‘Meanwhile, standing near the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 26 When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing beside her, he said to his mother, “Woman, here is your son.” 27 Then he said to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” And from that hour the disciple took her into his own home.’ In Montauk, New York there is a collection of sculptures by German artist Suse Lowenstein. The sculptures represent mothers, sisters, spouses, and relatives of the 259 people …