New Yorkers are born seekers. We are always looking for the best new restaurant, the latest play, the cheapest price for a kind of clothing — you name it, and we are on the lookout for it. Right Now. It is sometimes difficult, it is sometimes stressful, we sometimes need to elbow our way in front of others to get what we want, but that’s how it is in a big city. Because we live amidst a plethora of plenty and so we find…
In reviewing the daily lectionary readings, there are times one wonders if there is any connectivity among the assigned scriptures for the day. Sometimes yes and other times no. After reading the passages and letting them settle in my mind and heart, I began to see the threads of what people of faith refer to as a “call” in each. While the circumstances, settings
It’s ironic that in Matthew 6:1, Jesus has just instructed us to pray in secret and build a relationship with him in private, just before he gives us the most public prayer of all time. Nearly every church I have ever attended recited the Lord’s Prayer together, but the content is the example not the discipline. The Lord’s Prayer asks us to keep his name holy, it instructs us to find our purpose; necessities or daily bread are in God’s plan for us. Take responsibility for our sins and receive God’s Grace and forgiveness. Evil will come against us but trust that the Lord is by our side. We know how the story ends…
Matthew indicates a Christian is either a ‘sheep’ or a ‘goat’. His gospel indicates the Son of Man separates the sheep (on his right hand) from the goats (on his left hand) according to the evidence of the caring of their brothers and sisters. He blesses those who fed him when he was hungry, welcomed the stranger, clothed the naked, visited the sick or imprisoned, indicating to the sheep on his right hand, “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.”
In several places in the gospels Jesus is recorded as saying: “Follow me.” I often wonder if these seemingly blunt requests are more nuanced and subtle than what appears on the surface. In one of today’s readings Jesus says it to Levi – one of the social undesirables – who then in turn, with generous hospitality, celebrates Jesus with other undesirables at a banquet.
Today’s readings all mention fasting or sacrifice, which seems particularly appropriate for a Friday in Lent. The readings in Lent, beginning with Ash Wednesday, often mention fasting, and many people choose to fast as part of their observance of the season. In the reading from Matthew, Jesus does not condemn fasting, and we know that he too fasted while in the wilderness, and likely
To have been present at the death of someone you have loved is to have witnessed life — a life ended, a life begun. But it is also to know loss and to feel what it is to be lost. Not so much a feeling of where am I to go, rather how am I to be, how am I to live? We are
Listen to the third session of Clay Williams’ Science and Theology forum, Bios, which he led at Ascension on January 10, 2016. Here is a link to the handout he prepared for this forum.
“THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING”, a new film (2015) about capitalism vs. climate will be shown in our free film series on Tuesday, February 2nd, 7pm, at the Church of the Ascension Parish House, 12 West 11th Street. Based on Naomi Klein’s book of the same name, it explores whether the climate crisis can be addressed in the current era of reckless consumption and market fundamentalism.
Deirdre Good is presently Theologian in Residence at Trinity Wall Street. She was Professor of New Testament at General Seminary for 28 years. She grew up in Kenya and has written books on Matthew’s portrait of Jesus (Jesus the Meek King 1999), on Mary traditions in Judaism, Christianity and Islam (Mariam, the Magdalen and the Mother 2005), on households and families at the time of Jesus (Jesus’ Family Values 2006) and with Bruce Chilton (Reading the New Testament: A Fortress Introduction 2010).