A weekly overview of the Bible readings for each Sunday of the Church Year
Wednesdays: 03:00, 11:00, 15:00, 21:00
Humility is not a moral thing we decide to do or be; it is what happens when we recognize the fullness of our fallen reality and the greatness of God. God’s compelling and attractive nature, which draws us toward Him rather than drive us away, requires working through our natural, sinful inclination to distance ourselves from Him.
Here at the beginning of His ministry, Jesus transports us to the end showing us that we can experience our future reality in the present moment. This does not necessarily change our present circumstances, but it does change us, making us tread a little more boldly toward the final hour.
Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him. Matthew 2:2 Epiphany celebrates the promise of God making himself known to us; revealing himself to and through the church through the glorious weakness of preaching. The epiphany to the Magi is first a decisive act of revelation that casts light on what it means to be in the Church now and in which the eternal wisdom is being made known.
The Holy Innocents were martyrs in deed but not will: Their lives were taken for the sake of Jesus, but were not yet able to confess His name with their own minds and tongues. Jesus gave His life of His own to save the world from sin and death and He rose again to intercede for us.
My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. Luke 1:46–48 God’s mercy is powerful, but works not in the way the wannabe powerful act. God’s mercy seeks the humble, intending to edify and elevate him to God’s glory.
Blessed is the one who is not offended by me. Luke 7:23 The road through Advent to Christmas is no walk in the park. Although it is repeated each year, it is never experienced the same way. Life’s journey carries us to different points, but no matter where we are, we must learn again that the Way of Christ is not a broad, smooth path, but rather a narrow, rocky trail. We need the Lord to teach us again the intricacies of the Way, the curves, the terrain, and all the things that could be thrown at us. But what makes us endure to the end is knowing that God is with us.
Bear fruits in keeping with repentance. Luke 3:8a The truth of salvation is expressed in the double confession which expresses truthful recognition of God’s wrath and His love for the unlovable. The desire to reach God and the recognition of God reaches us in Christ’s incarnation.
Right when we think the journey is going to end with the Last Sunday of the Church Year, the lectionary rolls us quite seamlessly into Advent – the season of preparation. It turns out the Lord is drawing near, “at the very gates,” not to bring things to an end, but to carry them forward into fullness. The church calendar’s seamless movement from the end to the beginning shows us that the eschatological is bound together with the incarnational.
The last Sunday of the Church year remind us that the lectionary texts unfold the movement of the church calendar which repeatedly recalls the saturated meaning of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. This truth requires a special calendar to show us how time itself has been altered by the Incarnate Son of God so that now it measures our movement through – Not to. Through – our mortal end towards immortality.
God keeps faith forever. His kingdom is one of justice and generosity. To be a citizen of his kingdom is to put our trust in Him completely; and with that faith in Him, we trust that he will raise up those who are bowed down and sit us at his royal banquet table.
The life of Jesus and the lives of His "saints" are the two witnesses to the truthfulness of the alternative version of reality transfiguring deprivation, deficit, wickedness, or weakness into the state of ultimate blessedness that is experienced in the soul/mind/heart where Jesus opens His mouth to teach and opens us up to the new version of reality.
Jesus’ disciples were struck by His dismissing of wealth as a hindrance to desiring salvation. Then, He taught them the difference between gaining the whole world and losing the soul and "great exchange" – Christ swapping His righteousness for our un-right-ness.
Everything turns on Jesus being the cause and consummation of the goodness we desire; i.e., quality-perfect; quantity-forever. Only if that is goodness are we free to see possessions as ancillary, ministerial, auxiliary, useful tools of knowing and doing the good.
“Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of divorce and to send her away.” Mark 10:4. The regulatory aimed to weakened the hold of marriage by giving permits for divorce while Jesus defined marriage as our participation in God’s faithfulness that gave marriage the heft and oomph to battle our selfish, fat, insatiable egos.
Not everything called peace is peace. Jesus’ alternative peace is salt-like— “Have salt among yourselves and live in peace.” Salt subtly draws out and combines foods’ various flavours without notice until, that is, the salt is missing.
How is one made clean? By having the heart transformed, which happens by humbly hearing God’s promises, His Word of forgiveness, and engaging His commandments and precepts; and with that our souls are guarded, which is Jesus’ main concern.
The defeat of the fat, relentless ego is experienced when Christ’s presence works so that we desire to will and to do God’s good pleasure. When what we confess with our lips is what we believe, value and desire in our hearts.
Eternal life, like all life, depends on having the right kind of food and Jesus reminds us in in John 6:51 “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”
Anyone serious about the faith knows that belief is some of the hardest, most strenuous work out there because it learns to see life in the midst of death. Jesus, is “the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” (John 6:33) He is the bread that was sacrificed on the altar of the cross and His deadly sacrifice gives life to the world.
Jesus intensified the fear of his disciples of dying in a storm by appearing to be the angel of death present to take their souls to hades. His purpose was to demonstrate to the disciples that the very real evil in the world and in their hearts requires a very real deliverance that can be trusted even when in the thick of fearful circumstances.
Teaching is a sign of Christ’s compassion. He is not just here to protect and provide like a shepherd, He is here to teach and by teaching He leads people out of fear and disorder into his leisure and abundant feast in this wilderness.
And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. Mark 4:39 The calming of the sea was a contest of the louder voice. It was not just that Jesus told the sea “Peace, be still!” It was “Silent! Be muzzled!” Language has its limits, we think, but that is only until God gets his hands on it.
The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. Mark 4:26 When Jesus specifies the metaphor, close attention needs to be paid to points of comparison. The church is an agri-culture which distinguishes it from mechanical systems, financial systems, political powers, or pleasure calculus. Cultivation not management is the ruling metaphor. The natural history of seeds is the most direct king-dom analogy in seeing what falls to agency and what happens because of patience and trust. Agri-culture is not manageable but does admit that God’s promises, like seeds, have a trustable level of predictability.
If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. Mark 3:24 The nature of God’s Kingdom is not that of a family dynasty connected by physical bloodlines, but a spiritual Kingdom united by the power of the Holy Spirit under the Lordship of Christ. The Kingdom of Heaven is made up of people liberated from the Kingdom of Satan by Christ who has bound the strong man and plundered his house. The content of the God’s Kingdom, which no thief can steal, is forgiveness.
The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. Mark 2:27 Preaching on this passage has often staked the untrue claim that the Gospel "frees" a Christian from keeping the "Sabbath." And that deceptive claim gives the false consolation that Christians are free not to worship together. It is ironic that the freedom of the Gospel is a license to be free from the Gospel, which is enjoying God`s real presence.
Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!” Isaiah 6:5 God is life, life, life, and Isaiah saw himself to be too much defined by death to imagine ever fitting into God’s presence, that is until God cauterized his festering lips, forgiving his offenses then returning Isaiah to participate in the Spirit`s work of spreading life to the dying world.
Salvation is completely accomplished by Christ’s suffering, death, and resurrection. His Ascension unleashed the final stage of the apocalypse revealing the consequences of His Salvation by extending it to single individuals throughout all nations.
As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. (John 15:9) “Abide” means enjoying Christ’s perfection in loving as we have been loved. It is personal and participatory like remaining in a warm house whose warmth is shared.
Jesus’ declaration that he is the True Vine connects to His first miracle at the wedding in Cana. It was not accidental that Jesus launched His mission to give immortality to mortals at a wedding and by changing water into wine as it harkens back to God’s gifts of fruit and fruitfulness at life`s creation.
As they were talking about these things, Jesus himself stood among them, and said to them, “Peace to you!” (Luke 24:36) This reading continues the theme of peace brought about by Christ’s Resurrection, but instead of being connected to forgiveness, peace relates to physical presence and eating. Jesus grants peace by being physically present. Holy Communion incorporates the communion of the physical mind that “repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations…”
But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you. And they went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had seized them, and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid. (Mark 167-8) We are seeing here the response of true worship. True worship, as a saturated experience, leaves us ecstatic. It completely displaces us because we are overwhelmed with awe and wonder.
The mystery of Jesus’ Passion glory gives us the freedom to hate this life without hating life, the freedom to love this life by hating the destruction inflicted by sin, death, and the devil and to refuse to live as if life can be permanently killed. This freedom is granted only to those with the hope of Jesus’ Passion glory.
Jesus manifests what true greatness is in His self-sacrifice. True greatness is not in lording it over anyone but in the knowledge and wisdom He so generously serves. More than that, in His offering himself as the ransom—the redemption price for those all those who are captive to sin. A price well beyond what we can imagine!
The Evangelist Mark shows throughout his Gospel that Jesus moved individual souls inwardly by in-struction, while official authority depended on external compulsion. This difference changed the meaning of the word obedience from fearfully following external authority to following Jesus’ in-structuring of the soul that authorizes a way of life that is free from fear.
“The time is fulfilled.” Jesus responded to the bad news that John had been arrested by preaching the “Good News” about Him; and this is good news for bad times because, as Jesus said, “the time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand.”
Jesus’ baptism demonstrated that he, God’s beloved Son, now in love for His fallen world, freely identified Himself with sinners and, in love, freely chose to be in the presence of his beloved ones, and finally freely gave His life for his beloved on the cross.
Simeon declared his ability to depart in peace because he recognized Jesus as the fullness of time. As time’s fullness, Jesus would transform time from a draining movement of despair to the filling movement that departs into eternal fullness.
The angel Gabriel’s message to the Virgin Mary regarding the conditions of her pregnancy were unpromising and unsettling. Yet, she was to “fear not”, not because things were not fearful, but because the fear would give way to the joy of Christmas.
John the Baptist went by the desert to declare that the One who would come after him was the Way out of the wilderness of this life and the desert of death. Jesus was also called the Word, because his salvation would be nothing less than a new creation which would reveal Him as the Light of Life.
This parable happily characterizes the freedom that Christ’s mercy gives to be merciful unaware of doing something exceptional. It also gives us hope that our struggles with our stinginess and resentment, when we are called to sacrifice for others, are not in vain.
When time terminates life there is weeping and gnashing teeth, which contrasts with time opening to ever more time to mean “All’s well that ends well.” Paul wrote in the Epistle for this Sunday that God has not destined us for wrath, and yet Jesus wants us to appreciate the weeping and gnashing teeth of human hopelessness.
“Blessed are the …” The accumulating effect of the repetition of blessedness is an outline of the Christian hope. This hope starkly contrasts with the current pervasive hopelessness because it recognizes a hidden blessedness in seemingly life-ruining afflictions like poverty, persecution, hunger, and powerlessness.
This is an invitation to a festival that neither asks nor exacts any payment from us. It is the King of heaven’s will to put on an absolutely gratuitous festival that He completely plans and pays because he delights in our delight when his will is done that our lives may be characterized by being in the festival and not in the outer darkness.
The Human desire to flourish is pictured as being fruitful, which requires a vineyard. Yet, Jesus tells two parables that explain the belief in the fictional possibility of having a fruitful life while rejecting the vineyard and its owner.
“Do you begrudge my generosity?” (Mt 20:15) This parable is a masterclass in storytelling because it helps us viscerally feel the envy. But why would Jesus direct a parable about envy at his followers? Perhaps because they were the first hour hires who, at great personal cost, would establish God’s vineyard, the church on earth.
“Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him?” (Mt 18:21) Why must forgiveness be unlimited and un-countable? Because forgiveness is part of the atmosphere of existence. Forgiveness is like eating, sleeping, drinking, and breathing, where no one sets limits to how often we breath or eat or sleep or drink. Life depends on God’s forgiveness.
Jesus’ disciples were to have courage because God was really present and that makes the decisive difference in how life is lived. When faith recognizes Christ’s real presence, it is reasonable to meet truly fearful things with the courage that fears not.
Christ’s peace would be disruptive of all worldly peace which can only promise a temporary avoidance of death and not freedom from death; a freedom that is expressed by freely taking up one’s cross, expecting death to pay everlasting benefits.
Glad praise and thanksgiving are express recognition of and appreciation for the goodness that owes itself to God. Creatures worship when they come to know the goodness of the Lord God as both our Creator and as our Good Shepherd who cares for His flock.
Trinity Sunday asserts that we live and move and have our being within the Trinity. We are baptized in the name of the Trinity and through teaching, which is energized by the Holy Spirit, we actively, freely and joyfully participate in the Trinity’s...
Pentecost added to the Incarnation’s great reversal where God became a man so that mankind could hope to be like God. The reversal reverberated throughout fallen creation so that Christ gave life to the dead, health to the infirm, understanding to the...
The upshot of Jesus' resurrection is the possibility of untroubled hearts. The claim, like all interesting claims, is enticing, but much easier promised than possible. Christ’s claim that his presence lifts human hearts above adverse circumstances...
Beginning with the phenomenon of the physical healing, blindness becomes a metaphor to contemplate the irrational choice to reject Christ’s salvation. This means choosing to be determined by the mathematical certainty of one’s existence ending in...
Jesus’ thirst was a metaphor for a woman’s never-satisfied thirst for life. Even though she knew the facts about God promising satisfaction, her thirst to love and be loved was unquenched and frustrated. The gift of God’s grace promises to forever...
Christ fulfilling the Law restored the Law to its proper part in His intent to fulfil the human desire for God's love and life. This proper role of the Law is at work in repentance exposing our self-centred egoism as an incurable, crippling...
Jesus rejected the accusation that he was abolishing the Law. On the contrary, his grace and mercy fulfilled the Law so that it could continue, as the Psalm declared, to be “keenly desired” and to inspire the “Alleluias” that expressed the hope...
What would it be like not to fear loss? The beatitudes express the perfection of Christ that we as penitents can desire and aspire to. We can aspire to the beatitudes’ nonchalant attitude when we recognize that in Christ loss is gain.
The 12 days of Christmas (Christmas day to 5 January) offers us characters and events like St. Stephen the first martyr and Herod’s killing of the innocent children to help us understand that the incarnation is an invasion of the kingdom of heaven into...
Series A, Christmas Day The Evangelist John treats the incarnation of the Word of God as a military invasion which was heralded by the angelic host. Their rejoicing that the rightful king had begun his subversive campaign of sabotage of the earthly...
“...as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.” (Mt 1:20) If the incarnation...
In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." (Mt 3:1) Repentance is not a joyless obligation. Rather, it prepares us to enjoy Christ's Incarnation and the Truth that...
For those who are in Christ, death is blessed because it gives life, not because it ends it. So, it is fitting that the last Sunday of the Church focuses our attention on the meanings of death, the final event in every human life.
Jesus' truth of life is not found in the terror of death. The world’s demise is not the destruction of life, but rather the demolition of the old that makes way for coming of the new. This is why, when everything seems bent on becoming nothing, we...
Reformation means recognizing that the sign of the true Church is its commitment to continuous re–forming by Christ's truth. This means the Church is free to be still, and in that stillness to know that Christ is really present, and that his...
The similar act of prayer in Jesus’ parable of the Pharisee and the Tax-collector had significantly different meanings that reflect two kinds of critical thinking and two kinds of confidence. The first is self–confidence and the second is confident...
Prayer that overcomes discouragement is characterized by the common frustration of dealing with a corrupt legal official and a stubborn widow. She could not overpower corruption but her persistence would outlast it because corruption is a stage of dying...
The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” And the Lord said, “If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you. (John 17:5-6) Jesus was...
Jesus’ parables tapped into the deep human sadness of loss, which was, no doubt exacerbated by the unrelenting hatred tax collectors invited. Rather than being fixated on the sadness, these parables treated loss as the precondition for rejoicing...
Jesus’ peace is not the fragile and futile earthly peace of passively getting along by giving into the most selfish and powerful. His peace gives us the fire of His desire for the eternal and the sword to cut through the illusions, lies and deceptions...
Greed is a quasi–religious trust that the good life is given by material wealth. Jesus told the Parable of the Rich Fool to aid His disciples to repentance for being greedy fools. This story is a gift to the forgiven and who are free to fully face the...
“Lord, teach us to pray.” Seeing Jesus pray, the disciples asked Jesus to teach or apprentice them in prayer. Prayer was not understood as coming naturally like breathing but is a thing that is learned by persistent attention to God’s truth.
The Good Samaritan. By revealing the unmerited goodness of a Samaritan, Jesus prepared His hearers to recognize and appreciate the goodness of Christ's crucifixion and resurrection as God’s unmerited mercy rescuing the world victimized by evil.
Jesus cautioned His followers not to rejoice in their success but to remember their place in heaven. The promise of heaven would free them to continue to live as harvesters, in prayer, in traveling light while embracing life among the wolves and being...
Time and death are transformed because the Trinity is love. If God was one person, love would be self–love first and foremost. If God is Triune, then love has eternally been love for the other and not the self. The essentially sacrificial nature of...
Jesus promised the coming of the Holy Spirit who would continue His spiritual salvation which would prove to be more real in giving more life than any worldly salvation. The Spirit would give that peace that troubled, anxiety–ridden hearts desire and...
The Ascension placed an exclamation point on Christ's work of salvation. Once the Resurrection put life back on track, time again measured life's promised ascent to ever–increasing life rather than measuring the descent to inevitable death.
Jesus Christ predicted that His enemies' plan to kill him would succeed, but that His death would have a very different outcome than they planned. The cross did not end Christ's claim on His creation. It rather laid the cornerstone of the new...
A person is authorized by repentance to face the consequences of his sin without the threat of condemnation. Repentance gives us the liberty of the prodigal son to "come back to himself" and that is cause for joyful celebration rather than...
"Love your enemies..." Epiphany celebrates the Christ's catholic outreach to all peoples, everywhere and for all time. Jesus' hometown listeners wanted to kill him because his radical outreach was offensive. Nowhere is this offense...
“Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.” Luke 5:10b Peter did not want to follow Jesus. He rather fell down "at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, Lord, because I am a sinful man!" How could a fallen and flawed man...
“Ha! What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are-the Holy One of God.” Luke 4:34. Jesus has no intention of leaving any of us alone to remain comfortable in our life–destroying fallen and fevered...
The Epiphany season expresses the confidence that Jesus’ "Good News" is universal in that it promises the fulfilment of all human desire to all people, everywhere for all time. Having this confidence means coming to grips with the abrupt...
The Evangelist Luke connects Jesus’ progress in wisdom, physical strength and in nearness to God and others to Jesus’ listening to and asking questions of the temple's teachers. This connection stakes the outrageous claim, as Mary and Joseph...
Simeon's song helps us get used to living in the new realty of Christ's Incarnation. The song does this by making the contestable claim that the Incarnation changes the meaning of death. The claim is that Christ's presence somehow deprives...
Prophetic greatness does not play it safe like a reed that bends to whatever wind is blowing nor does it seek the security of castles nor wears soft clothing. A prophet's greatness is that he is trusted because he believes what he proclaims even to...
[Jesus said:] “From the fig tree learn this lesson…” We are meant to see the passing of material existence as a return to the primordial chaotic state ready for a second creation by the eternal Word. When these things take place, the...
After predicting a terrifying future, Christ said “do not be anxious.” Anxiety is forbidden because it is a deception and deceptions distract us from seeing the truth. The truth is that Jesus’ fall-resistant up-rightness could never be realized by...
Astounded by Jesus’ dismissive view of wealth, Peter wondered “Who can be saved?” Wealth supported the institutions and teachers necessary for worship and study without which, Peter presumed, salvation was impossible. Jesus explained that...
Jesus refused to let a rich young man call him “good teacher” because the man did not yet understand God as the source and destination of all good. Goodness is good because it originates as a gift from God to draw us back to Him. The rich man...
Jesus’ severe limitation of divorce was the negative side of his positive teaching on the desirability of God’s faithfulness. Over time, the faithfulness expressed in the marriage vow transformed the promiscuity of Roman culture which gave women and...
To teach His disciples the right way of peace, Jesus first attacked their desire to have peace by dominating others. This sort of “peace” is like gaining control of one’s body by amputating the offending member. Jesus’ alternative peace is...
Jesus’ disclosure of his coming betrayal, murder and resurrection was a sacrifice too fearful for the disciples to consider. So Jesus patiently helped the disciples come to grips with their fear by asking them about their recent argument regarding...
We have grown accustomed to this fallen upside-down world so that we do not know what uprightness is or whether we even desire it. Yet, we live with an unbearable suspicion that nothing can turn us upright so we are always falling for the fake solutions...
By successfully labelling the Pharisees hypocrites, Jesus exposed their “splendid” theatre of deception. Their public performance of a rigid, methodical observation of religious rules and rituals disguised the “abandoning the commandment of God”...
Life, like love, is not truly life unless it is forever. Though Peter was profoundly scandalized by Jesus’ incomprehensible command to eat his body and drink his blood, he recognized he had nowhere to go because Jesus spoke the words of eternal life
Here Jesus speaks to those who behold him but do not believe him. They heard Jesus’ words and experienced his miraculous works but did not believe he was the Bread of Life who satisfies the insatiable hunger for evermore life. Their rejection would...
Looking back, the Evangelist Mark could recognize why cowardliness plagued the apostles until they witnessed Jesus’ resurrection. Only at that point they understood that the peace that calmed the storm was intent on calming the cosmos. Mark expresses a...
To give his disciples the “good time” of leisure, Jesus took them to a deserted place for rest, which almost no one would think of as having a good time. Jesus’ point was to show them/us that leisure—being removed from the excitement in order to...
Concealed in the seed’s smallness is the potential for great growth. To drive home the lesson of the mustard seed, Jesus sent out his disciples, not with military force or a bureaucratic plan or a spectacular advertising strategy but materially...
Pentecost inaugurates the third act of the Trinity’s presence on earth. The Spirit’s work is to draw us deeper in participation in the life of the Trinity, which is a vast topic slowly considered during Pentecost, the longest season of the church...
And when his family heard it, they went out to seize him, for they were saying, “He is out of his mind.” (Mark 3:21) Had Jesus lost His mind? As CS Lewis famously observed that if Jesus was not the Lord while saying the things he said, he’d be...
“…unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God”. Pentecost meant that God’s Triune presence on earth was complete and permanent. From now on, our natural desire for wholeness would be satisfied by God’s supernatural presence and...
The first truth the Holy Spirit drives home is an analysis of being stuck in sin without an escape. WB Yeats puts it this way: “Now that my ladder's gone, I must lie down where all the ladders start: in the foul rag and bone shop of the heart”....
The Word of truth and life. In John 15:1-8 Jesus identifies Himself as the True Vine and promises to satisfy our God-given desire for life not to decay but to become more and more fruitful overtime until, one day, we are raised to eternal life.
Jesus himself stood among them, and said, “Peace to you!” The fact of the Resurrection meant, from now on, that emerging Peace was the real world; fear and despair were temporary conditions moving toward the irrelevance of non-existence.
Jesus’ healed wounds convinced doubting Thomas that God’s cosmic healing was, in fact, underway. God’s kingdom had come, not by obvious force but by the hidden and humble movement of forgiveness: “If you forgive anyone's sins, their sins are...
“Do not be alarmed.” The angel told the first witnesses of the greatest material, death-defying act in all history to “calm down”. They were not witnesses of a circus; they were seeing the beginning of the second creation. They were alarmed...
Jesus' first disciples experienced Holy Week as the defeat of their faith and hope because it seemed that evil had triumphed over love. St. Mark’s claim is that Jesus’ movement to the cross was never, at any point along the path, a defeat. And...
“…whoever would be great among you must be your servant” (Mark 10:43b). The disciples refused Jesus’ salvation through cross and to resurrection. In a right-side up world, the glory of living is not sacrifice and not the selfish pursuit of...
“…for God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). God expressed His love for the perishing in Jesus, the beloved Son, who Himself perished in such a way as to...
In a strange way, the empty ease with which “Jesus Christ” is used for swearing unwittingly accepts a connection that was hard won by the true man “Jesus” showing that He filled the office of the “Christ.” How tenuous this connection is...
Lent is about love—God's beloved Son’s loving sacrifice for our salvation. Turning Lent into a season focused on the world’s suffering or on personal self-denial is a distraction. Lent aims to train our attention on the meaning of the love of...
The Transfiguration defines the salvation by Christ's cross as a movement of events. Beginning on the Mount of Transfiguration, salvation moves through the disfiguration of the cross, and then is completed by the Resurrection. The Transfiguration...
Jesus amazed his hearers because his teaching had authority that was somehow different from the authority of the official teachers. Official authority moves people by external compulsion. Jesus had the authority to move people inwardly by speaking to...
Jesus responded to the bad news of John’s arrest by preaching the “good news” of the presence of God’s kingdom. John wondered if Jesus was the promised Messiah because God’s presence made no real difference. Then he discovered that the goodness...
Astonished! The temple teachers were surprised at the insightful questions that came from a mere boy. They were astonished because once again God’s promises appear to us as so humble, that is, unpromising. Should we expect anything less than that the...
Peace is defined by the ability to depart in peace. Simeon declared his ability to depart in peace because he recognized Jesus as the fullness of time. As time’s fullness, Jesus would transform time from a draining movement of despair to the filling...
Why do God’s promises seem so unpromising? Promising life by means of the Cross seems foolish to some and scandalous to others. Here, the prophet declaring the promise lived in a dead desert, had a disgusting diet and suffered a dreadful death. To...
At the end of days, those who freely pray “Thy will be done” are separated from those who insist “My will be done.” God will not force these to live eternally in the joy of obedience. Jesus came to heal the sickest of the sick and not to enhance...
The parable of the 10 virgins reveals how faith relates to fear, particularly the fear of missing out. Jesus intends for us to see ourselves in the foolish virgins for the many times we failed to “watch” because we were distracted from the things...
“For many are invited, but few are chosen.” This parable disabuses us of the destructive deception that grace means doing whatever we want whenever we please. The sooner we rid ourselves of this deception, the sooner we can lean into the sumptuous...
"The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone…" Jesus trains His disciples to read rejection rightly. Rejection is unavoidable and an indispensable aid to help us come to know the truth about what we believe to be true.
“Do you begrudge my generosity?” Who would you rather be, one hired in the first or last hour? The question is ridiculous as less work for equal pay is more desirable in the parable. A more serious question is, were you hired first, could you imagine...
Happy is the one whose sin is forgiven… in whose spirit there is no deceit (Psalm 32:1, 2). The “great” miss out on the greatness of forgiveness, which here means being loosed from lying to ourselves and to others. Confession is how we enjoy our...
Why would God create dogs, with a miraculous capacity for domestication—if He did not intend to take fill their appetites? Once again food becomes the context of faith, suggesting that faith’s desire for fulfilment is akin to hunger’s desire to be...
Having heard the bitter report that John the Baptist had suffered a humiliating beheading, Jesus dealt with this deep disappointment by isolating himself in a desolate place. “Weeping and gnashing teeth” describes the poisonous effect our...
We have membership in two worlds; the primary, seen, physical world and the secondary, unseen, metaphysical world. When we pray, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” we expect to enjoy on earth the benefits of our membership in the kingdom...
Sleeping, waiting while life-wrecking evil causes weeping and gnashing teeth, is difficult to the extreme. Nevertheless, because things like growing, grace and gifts come to those who wait, to sleep trusts God to bring His gift of life to fruition.
Zechariah 9:9-12; Psalm 145:1-14; Romans 7:14-25a; Matthew 11:25-30 Rest is not doing nothing. The reason we rest is to meditate on God’s works. Restlessness misses the fundamental truth of existence that none of us created the world so none of us can...
Jeremiah 28:5-9; Psalm 119:153-160; Romans 7:1-13; Matthew 10:34-42 “I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.” These words of the “Prince of Peace” more than suggest that the word peace does mean the same thing for everyone. Jesus saw peace...
Jeremiah 20:7–13; Psalm 91; Romans 6:12-23; Matthew 10:5a, 21-33 Fear distorts our sense of time, as we fear everything is inevitably moving toward disappointment. Jesus commanded His disciples to “fear not” because His resurrection would change...
“The kingdom of heaven is at hand…” Jesus taught the disciples that the kingdom of heaven’s economy would leave its trace of truth on the way they saw payment for their preaching, saying, “You received without paying; give without pay.” As...
Numbers 11:24–30; Psalm 25:1–15; Acts 2:1–21; John 7:37–39 The truth of faith rolls out slowly as it takes hold by in-forming and in-structuring the human soul. The Spirit works from the inside out, so that His work is neither recognised nor...
Acts 17:16–31; Psalm 66:8–20; 1 Peter 3:13–22; John 14:15–21 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments…If anyone loves me, he will keep my word…” We love God only because He first loved us. How this love connects to commandments is...
Acts 6:1-9, 7:2a, 51-60; Psalm 146; 1 Peter 2:2-10; John 14:1-14 “Do not let your hearts be troubled” said Jesus, because this place cannot give us peace and so He must go to prepare a better place. But then, almost everyone who has lived has wanted...
Acts 2:42–47; Psalm 23; 1 Peter 2:19-25; John 10:1-10 “Goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life”. The Good Shepherd’s goodness surprises us from behind with things that follow from keeping our eyes on Him who leads us through...
Acts 5:29–42; Psalm 148; 1 Peter 1:3-9; John 20:19-31 It’s striking that Jesus assured Thomas that He had come in peace. He would eventually show Thomas the physical healing he wanted to see, but more important than persuading Thomas was to assure...
Acts 10:34–43; Psalm 16; Colossians 3:1-4; Matthew 28:1-10 Matthew reports that “there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone,” which built up to the mundane observation that the...
Isaiah 50:4-9a; Psalm 118:19-29; Philippians 2:5-11; John 12:20-43 The events of Holy Week are called Christ’s humiliation where He humbly exposed the contest between two kinds of glory – human and divine – that merely flip the order of...
Ezekiel 37:1–14; Psalm 130; Romans 8:1-11; John 11:17–27, 38–53 These readings alert us to the importance of disappointment when it begins, but also to the fact that Jesus came with an inclusive hope for all, for every circumstance and for all...
Isaiah 42:14–21; Psalm 142; Ephesians 5:8–14; John 9:1–7, 13–17, 34–39 Who would oppose healing a man born blind? This question is meant to point fingers of blame, but to see how this Lenten passage leads us to repentance. By considering the...
Because of Nicodemus’ questions, we have a better understanding of what is one of the most beloved teachings of Jesus. For us who are overly-familiar with this passage, these questions do us a great service to help us pay closer attention to the path...
Genesis 3:1-21; Psalm 32:1-7; Romans 5:12-19; Matthew 4:1-11 The light of Lent reveals that death is now a stage on life’s way to unending life. The six weeks of Lent being repeated yearly shows how Jesus’ suffering, death and resurrection changes...
Deuteronomy 30:15-20; Psalm 119:1-8; 1 Corinthians 3:1-9; Matthew 5:21-37 What does Jesus’ ratcheting up the severity of the Law mean? First, we need to remember that Jesus came not to abolish the law but to fulfil it, and to fulfil us through the Law.
Isaiah 58:3–9a; Psalm 112:1-9; 1 Corinthians 2:1-12; Matthew 5:13-20 What is the difference between abolishing and fulfilling the Law? Were the Law evil, it would have been abolished. But the Law is—as the Psalm says—delightful, even if its...
Simeon’s epiphany was his recognition that Jesus was the Consolation of Israel. Consolation is necessary because the world is broken and sad. Understanding consolation means that we see how it is different from empathy. Empathy responds to sadness with...
Every third Sunday after the Epiphany, the texts have us again consider the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. Why? Perhaps because we need to repeatedly be reminded of how difficult it is to believe that the modest methods of “ministry” are capable of...
Jesus did not come to abolish the Law but to fulfil it. And when the Law is fulfilled life is fulfilling. Baptism began this work of fulfilment because it fulfilled all righteousness. The claim and promise is that this fulfilment of righteousness can...
The Incarnation of the Son of God changed the world without political, economic and military power. This world-altering work of salvation was rather centred in the calmness of hearing and asking questions of teachers of God’s Word.
Real life was added to the world in the hidden working of God, as an invisible angel rescued the Holy Family to wait it out in Egypt while God let time do His work. Spiritual power goes unnoticed but it does not mean that it is unreal, as our celebration...
Isaiah 11:1–10; Psalm 72:1–7; Romans 15:4–13; Matthew 3:1–12 John the Baptist was a strange man whose strong message is exactly what we need today if we are to rightly celebrate Christmas. John is an Advent character who gets us ready to get...
The church has a different calendar because Christians believe that Jesus—the Fullness of Time—has changed the meaning of time. Ordinary calendars see time as celebrating human accomplishments that sadly do not solve the problem of time running out....
How can we enjoy any peace on the Last Sunday of the Church Year which remembers the brutal truth that every material thing is this world has destined to destruction? The simple answer is to look at the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. There we see...
We don’t naturally see destruction as a sign of hope, and so we need Jesus’ teaching to make this connection. He shows that God destroys things in order to clear the way for a better life. We do not do the destroying, but when it happens we are to...
Exodus 3:1–15; Psalm 148; 2 Thessalonians 2:1–8, 13–17; Luke 20:27-40 When things (like the Church year) come to a close, it’s time to think about what comes next. In this text Jesus uses questions about the resurrection to teach about what...
Revelation 7:9–17; Psalm 149; 1 John 3:1-3; Matthew 5:1-12 In a material-centric world, you are what you appear or what you possess or what you have done. In a world created by God, the material was caused by the immaterial Word of God, so that what...
Revelation 14:6-7; Psalm 46; Romans 3:19-28; John 8:31-36 Jesus did not think teaching show coddle the mind and make people comfortable with themselves. He taught that knowing God in truth required a constant reformation of the pleasant lies that we...
Ruth 1:1–19a; Psalm 111; 2 Timothy 2:1-13; Luke 17:11-19 Why is it—at least here--that 9 times out of 10 enjoyment of God’s great gifts does not lead one to a desire to enjoy the Giver’s ongoing presence? The text does not worry at all about the...
Why does Jesus think a child’s humility embody greatness? Children conceive of their lives the unfolding of future possibilities. Children are humble, at the bottom looking up, because they possess nothing and have accomplished nothing: They have a...
Amos 8:4–7; Psalm 113; 1 Timothy 2:1–15; Luke 16:1–15 God chooses to do His work in our lives through an edification that happens slowly through repetition and repentance. The good that is done in preaching happens over time and in the thick of...
Ezekiel 34:11–24; Psalm 119: 169–176; 1 Timothy 1: (5–11) 12–17; Luke 15:1–10 God values personal bonds of love that are as inefficient as a woman wasting time to find a lost coin and then throws a party that costs more than the value of the...
Deuteronomy 30:15–20; Psalm 1; Philemon 1–2; Luke 14:25–35 Everyone desires to be happier and this makes us vulnerable. Wanting happiness to run deeper, last longer and be more satisfying produces selfishness and cynicism. The happiness that is...
Engaging the pericopes is worth doing even if we do it badly. In fact, the good that comes from repeatedly reading Scriptures “pericopely” is both existential and cumulative. The existential good is that the Biblical texts speak at a particular...