2/17/2019
Epiphany 6C
Today’s scripture lessons all point to the truth that our Christian faith calls us to make a choice to live by a different and higher standard than the rest of the world. In Luke’s Gospel, immediately before his Sermon on the Plain, Jesus had chosen the 12 he wanted to be his disciples. He gave this teaching to them – to his inner circle – about the choice they would need to make. It was an age-old choice.
2/3/2019
Epiphany 4C
Jesus knew that the people of Nazareth would not accept the idea of him teaching and healing anywhere except to the Israelites. They were very comfortable with their heritage as children of Abraham and the people of God. They were offended by the idea that this was not an exclusive status with God. Jesus was declaring that he would speak about God to anybody who would listen.
1/27/2019
Epiphany 3C
Jesus quoted the prophet Isaiah, who wrote about the price that Israel would pay for their falling away from God, with defeat and exile – which happened in 586 BC. But Isaiah also wrote that God would ultimately return them to their homeland. There would be the feeling of a Jubilee Year – as Moses taught about in Leviticus 25:8-13: A time of release and restoration. Their release from exile happened in 538 BC, when the King of Persia started releasing them to go home.
1/20/2019
Epiphany 2C
John wrote that this was “the first of his signs”. This was a miracle, but the important part of what happened is that it was a sign that Jesus had the power of God; he could change things on the inside. It wasn’t just ‘red’, it was a very good wine.
1/6/2019
The Epiphany
Detail: This date, January 6, was celebrated in Egypt as the winter solstice, when the sun god made his appearance (epiphany). Third century Christians chose this date for the Lord’s Epiphany, and connected it with three Gospel ‘epiphany’ stories; the coming of the Magi, the baptism of Jesus (with God’s pronouncement), and the wedding at Cana.
12/30/2018
Christmas 1 C
John (the theologian) takes us to a heavenly perspective on the importance of the birth of the baby Jesus. It is high theology, and it is easy for the lessons this Sunday to get very complicated very quickly. But there is an important dimension here of who Jesus was. John’s prologue explains the significance of Christmas that I had never heard until I took courses in seminary. Let’s see where John is taking us.
12/23/2018
Advent IV C
Elizabeth’s senior life pregnancy most definitely caused a change in the plans she had made. She was suddenly no longer going to slow down the pace of life; retire in her ‘golden years’; or even sleep in more. In her old age she was going to be the mother of a baby boy; and not just any baby boy. Elizabeth was carrying John; whom an angel announced was going to prepare the way for Israel’s Messiah. God’s Plan brought a whole new direction to Elizabeth’s life.
12/16/2018
Advent III C
John understood that he was there to prepare the way for the Messiah; but the fact that Jesus was more concerned with healing, reconciliation, and love than repentance led John to question whether Jesus was really the One whom he was called to proclaim (Lk. 7:18-20). “Are you the one, or should we expect someone else?”
12/2/2018
Advent 1
Be on guard. Be alert. Something is happening!
Years ago NBC ran a series of commercials about their nightly news; “The world is complicated. Our job is to make sense of it. That is what we do.” Isn’t that special?
The truth is that daily life includes events that do not make sense. School shootings, boiling tempers in politics and in the streets of America, acts of terrorism around the world, an inability to have civil discourse anymore. In the context of all the issues that can pull us down and wear us out, there is a message in the season of Advent that offers us hope.
11/25/2018
Pentecost Last
What kind of king is he?
In John 6:15, the people were so overcome by the teaching and actions of Jesus that they intended to come and force him to be their king. He rejected that, and Scripture says that he ‘withdrew again to a mountain by himself.’ This was not the kind of kingship he was sent to do.