Jesus is the most complete image of the fullness of God that we as humans can comprehend. Jesus came to serve us, to die for us, and thereby to restore us to the original relationship with had with God in the beginning. If we want to follow Jesus, we will need to put aside any sense of our own entitlement or idea that we are somehow more worthy than any other person. (And the converse […]
God’s Realm, Jesus’ Kingdom, is different than the earthly ones. It isn’t different because it’s unreal, otherworldly or some sort of fairy tale. It’s different because it’s built on a radically different foundation. Liberation and Peace come not through military triumph, but through love, service and self-sacrifice. It’s the essential characteristic of the God we worship. It’s fitting that the cross has become the symbol of our faith. God’s love is self-sacrificial. God’s love is […]
People on the margins seem to have a different relationship with God, with Jesus, and an ability to presume upon that relationship, than do the rich and the powerful and the well connected. This seems obvious, and unsurprising given the way that the whole of Holy Scripture speaks of God’s special love for the poor and marginalized, but in the Church today, we still seem surprised when we encounter it. I cannot tell you how […]
In this week’s Gospel, we hear Jesus’ critique of the religious leaders of his community. He is speaking within a context different than ours to a people who were facing challenges that we are not. His words to the religious leaders, while sounding harsh to our ears, are not that different than the sorts of sustained critiques that they leveled against one another. In the narrative of Mark’s Gospel, Jesus has just fed the multitude […]
The Messiah is telling us things we didn’t anticipate. This isn’t about subduing the enemy. This isn’t about being exalted and having the world serve us. This isn’t about the arrival of a paradise that grants us everything we think we’ve ever needed. This is about dying for others. This is about giving your body so that others can live. And this is about accepting that sort of sacrifice from others on your behalf. Even […]
This week’s sermon is a bit of a sidebar. We’ve been hearing St. John’s account of the feeding of the multitude and the explanation that follows by Jesus to the gathered crowd. We’ve talked about how this miracle signifies the return of the manna. And that people were looking for that as proof that the Messiah had come. But we’ve not talked about manna and what it was. There are multiple natural explanations for the […]
We sing “I am the Bread of Life” and forget the power and shock behind these words. We worship a crucified God, and we “gnaw” on God’s flesh so that we can live. Jesus calls himself the Son of Man, the Mortal One, in other words, the one who will die. His death (and resurrection) isn’t the same as Lazarus’ whom Jesus raises later in the Gospel. Jesus’ resurrection (by the divine force willingly dying […]
The Gospel reading for this week picks up right where last week’s left off. Having fed the multitude in the wilderness, Jesus performs another sign that testifies to his true identity by walking across the lake to the other side, where the following day, the people chasing after him find him. In this week’s reading, he begins to teach on the deeper meaning of the sign of the feeding, who he is, and the deeper […]
There is only one miracle that appears in all four Gospels – the feeding of the multitude in the wilderness. It appears in two different versions in the first two Gospels, so you could say this miracle appears six times in all. Nothing else Jesus does features as prominently. It’s reasonable to assume that this was very important to the early followers of the Way. We tend to imagine that in a time of military […]
As a bishop, most times when I visit with a congregation, we quickly start to talk about the challenges the congregation is facing. Those challenges start with not having enough money to do the things we want to do. Many of the challenges being managed have to do with the building in which the community gathers. Some of the concerns are about the lack of people, or the lack of a certain group of people […]
