4/29/2018
Fifth Sunday of Easter
When I was a teenage boy, I was active in Boy Scouts. I loved it. I loved camping out, I loved learning how to read maps and to follow marked trails. I loved wearing my scout uniform, and I loved earning merit badges. I looked forward to every summer, when I knew that my parents would let me leave the family business for a week, and go off to scout camp: Camp Portaferry in the Adirondack Mountains in NNY.
4/22/2018
Fourth Sunday of Easter
In the late 1960’s someone published a collection of wisdom sayings common to American mothers. Some of those sayings sound very familiar to me; “OK, you can go to Randy’s house, but don’t overstay your welcome.” “Just because somebody jumps off a bridge, does that mean that you jump, too?” And the one I remember the most, “Don’t make me call your father.” Can you hear your mother’s voice there?
4/15/2018
Third Sunday of Easter
The Scripture lessons today describe more than one transformation that began with the resurrection of Jesus. Jesus proved that his resurrection was no illusion; his appearance was not in some ghostly form; he was physically present and alive. But John’s account of this meeting tells us that while Jesus proved his physical presence to Thomas and the others, he got into the room through locked doors!
4/1/2018
Easter Sunday
We have moved through the solemn forty days of Lent, and arrived at this date that is celebrated by 2.4 billion Christians around the world. We celebrate the resurrection from the dead of our Lord Jesus Christ.
3/25/2018
Palm Sunday
Today we begin a week closely following Jesus’ welcome as king into the city of Jerusalem; the last meetings with his disciples; his giving final instructions and teachings; the betrayals and abandonment; tears, false accusations, humiliation, agony, execution and burial.
3/18/2018
5 Lent
After the Israelites escaped Egypt, God isolated them from all the other nations. He gave them the Ten Commandments as a physical sign of the covenant that was now in place with God. But Israel lacked the resolve to keep the covenant. God led them for 40 years through the wilderness, (a very long route for the distance they really had to travel – have you seen a map of their route?). They were taken away from distractions to build community, to live into their relationship with each other and with God. Still they lacked the commitment to stay to the task.
3/4/2018
3 Lent
Cursillo begins its 3 ½ days of teaching by offering the concept that we all live by an ideal. Our ideal is the combination of ideas, hopes, and preferences that inspire us and motivate us. Our ideal shapes our whole life. It makes us who we are. What is your ideal?
2/25/2018
2 Lent
Lent is the season for reflection on our faith; on who is the God of our faith; what our God has taught us through his Son Jesus Christ; and what reprioritizing is needed in our life so that we can experience the fullness of God in our life.
2/18/2018
1 Lent
A Covenant – between two parties, each pledging to do something for the other. E.g., covenant of marriage. Major covenant models from the Bible are; Noah, Moses, and Jesus.
Noah’s wilderness journey lasted 40 days; a rain that destroyed everything outside the ark. I expect that during that time he reflected on the new life he would live – if and when he ever saw land again. When he had endured his wilderness time, he was empowered by a new covenantal relationship with God. He and his family were the fresh start of the human race.
2/4/2018
5 Epiphany
Jesus said, “We must go on to other towns as well, and I will preach to them too, because that is what I came out to do.” Jesus came to teach. But he also felt compelled to heal, partly because of the compassion he had for the needs of people, but he also healed because he knew how important it was to meet people where they are, if he expected them to listen to what he came to teach them.