Lessons You can read the scripture for August 28, 2016 here. Audio “…my people have changed their glory for something that does not profit.” The book of the Prophet Jeremiah has been described using terms such as “soul-searing”, and “conscience challenging”, even as it promises hope to the wounded in body and spirit. Now, historical facts from the period in which Jeremiah wrote are
Lessons You can read the scripture for August 21, 2016 here. Audio The world is changing. Don’t watch the news, it seems only to give the bad news. More change is afoot than the news cycle can capture, and we’re part of it. In the sense that we have feelings of a generalized and imminent change, we can probably share the mood of many
Lessons You can read the scripture for August 7, 2016 here. Audio Text In a recent meeting with my spiritual director I spoke about my ever-evolving spiritual practices. For a couple of years now I’ve been trying to catch myself when my critical nature begins to surface – like when I’m walking to work and find myself getting annoyed at people and things that
In the 2003 film “Luther” starring Joseph Fiennes, Martin Luther is seen rather early in his ministry as wrestling with the character and intention of God. You may be aware that Martin Luther was chief architect of what eventually became a sprawling reformation movement – a movement deeply opposed to how the established church (at the time there was only the Roman Catholic tradition) – how the church understood its role in the world’s relationship with God.
It’s not easy, at first, to get a sense of what is on Paul’s mind as we read today’s excerpt. But if you compare the first several verses to most of his other letters, you will notice the jarring absence of a prayer of thanksgiving directly after the initial greeting. Paul is astonished. He’s actually angry.
The Feast of Advocacy and Consolation – The Feast of Pentecost is believed by a host of scholars to be the day that Christianity, as a faith movement, was born. The First Sunday of Advent might begin our liturgical year, but it’s Pentecost – as a point in time and space – where what we know of what it means to be Christ’s body, made an initial, quantum leap into expressed reality.
It would be difficult to overestimate the importance of this particular gospel passage in Christian thought. The love command that Jesus gives here – here in this crux-y place nestled between open ministry and inner revelation – this command to love, as it is expressed here, is typically understood as both the center of Jesus’ teaching and the center of Christian life. And most scholars see this very passage as pivotal to the structure and theology of John’s Gospel: “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another.”
Revelation begins on Patmos, a small Greek island in the Aegean Sea. The risen Christ appears and dictates, to John, seven messages to the churches in Asia Minor. John is then transported to the heavenly world, where he beholds the throne of God, God who is praised as Creator of all. God’s right hand holds a sealed book, which is taken by the Lamb – and as the Lamb opens the seals, terrible judgments are inflicted upon the earth. The final seal, the seventh, unfolds into…
The body of Jesus was buried in the late afternoon on Friday. The women came to the tomb early Sunday morning. The Gospels say nothing about the events that took place in between. It’s in this silence that the ancient celebration of Easter Vigil fits. We wait with his followers. In the present day, we might remember how it was women among Jesus’ original cohort who planned, and attempted to enact, proper ritual cleansing…
It’s tempting for a preacher to prayerfully announce, “This text speaks for itself,” plant a big Amen on it and sit down to reflect in silence. And, behold, you may yet get that someday! It’s also tempting – and deliciously justifiable homiletically – to focus on one of the many images unique to John’s version of Christ’s passion…