The first three scriptures appear to have conflict as the common thread. Isaiah 50:8 sums it up with an aggressive tone of confrontation (“Who will contend with me? Let us stand up together. Who are my adversaries? Let them confront me”), while Psalm 70 asserts that those who seek my life will be shamed and dishonored. But in John 13:21-32 Jesus takes a different
“Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” John 12:24 “While you have the light, believe in the light, so that you may become children of light.” After Jesus had said this, he departed and hid from them. John 12:36 The cosmos
Over the years I have seen the struggle for maintaining social safety nets and I have personally wrestled with my own responsibilities to those in need around me. Time and again I have heard “Christians” say we shouldn’t bother with safety nets or food programs because “Jesus says, ‘You always have the poor with you.”One morning I found myself mulling this over and I
The social activist and “Servant of God” Dorothy Day wrote, “We cannot love God unless we love each other, and to love we must know each other. We know Him in the breaking of bread, and we know each other in the breaking of bread, and we are not alone any
“The stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.” Rejection is one of the hardest experiences in life. For me, it conjures up the scene of a childhood playground, the captains of two teams reducing the pool of eligible members one by one to the inevitable “last”pick. For those few at the end of the selection, the scene is loaded with feelings of
Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited.
In these troubled times I am constantly tuning out some of the negative voices and influences and trying to be more attentive to voices of hope. Today’s readings are perfect for fostering hope. First there’s Haggai (chapter 2); This is one of the shortest books of the Bible and one I most often forget even exists. But his words “I am with you; fear
I wait for, I pray for inspiration by the Holy Spirit. Free me from the distractions and fears that cripple me. Empower, embolden and enlighten me with your gifts. The Disciples gathered, praying and waiting for the One Christ promised would come after Him, that God had promised for generations. Suddenly, miraculously, the Spirit comes…and there’s an audience. To many, the explanation is that
The word ‘competent’ in Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians startled me. I looked at other translations, thinking that ‘competent’ might be a modern usage. My collection of modern Bibles all use ‘competent’ but the King James Version is “Not that we are sufficient of ourselves
I found myself in 2017 questioning how God could allow all the evil in the world that we were experiencing; just as the prophet Habakkuk did in this passage: Were you angry with the rivers, Lord? Was your wrath against the streams? Did you rage against the sea? This year we heard about terrible events taking place in the world and in New York: