The Pharisees probably expected the tax-collectors to repent and become their disciples, in essence to become just like the other Pharisees. But that didn’t happen. And so they wouldn’t believe that the “repentance” being claimed was “real” What do you think repentance looks like? Do you expect a penitent life to look just like yours? Is that realistic? In the sermon below I’ll try to answer that question – or at least try to explain […]
According to gaming theory, any economic activity where both parties fully understand what is happening is a non-zero-sum game. We forget that a lot. We tend to think that buying and selling is a cut throat competition. Which it is if you’re not being honest with each other. But if you are, you both win when you buy or sell something. Think about that. The key is being honest and transparent. The Kingdom of Heaven […]
There’s an apparent disconnect between the God Jesus describes in the Sermon on the Mount and the God imagined in this parable. Or is there? Notice that once the evil servant enters the social web of revenge and debts and debtors, the evil servant if forced by the system to face the consequences of what his is doing. The King treats him differently, but he is not willing to live into that form of relationship […]
All three of the readings assigned for this week are about relationship. The Hebrew Scriptures speak of the first Passover and the new covenantal relationship between God and the children of Abraham, Issac and Jacob. The Gospel, read from St. Matthew’s account, tells us about how to live with one another when conflict arises in the community. And the third reading, from St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans, is about the guiding principles of the […]
Unselfish giving is defined as love. Literally it is what we mean we say that Agape is love. In one of John’s epistles we find the one “is” statement about God. St. John writes that “God is Love.” (Actually it’s: God is AGAPE.) We know about God because of God’s choice. And the fact that we as finite creatures have encountered the infinite in a comprehensible way means that the infinite has freely chosen to […]
There are some startling implications to be drawn from the Gospel passage this week. Jesus proclaims the nature of the Church and seems to tie it intimately to the recognition of the Creator in the Incarnation which is given to us by the agency of the Holy Spirit. Once again in this theophany, this unveiling of God’s nature, we see the actions of all three Persons of the Trinity. What you bind will have been […]
I don’t like the idea that Jesus could be defeated. I think I know why it bothers me exactly. I suppose it has to do with who I believe Jesus to be. If Jesus can be tricked, or changed by a witty remark, is he still God? Can the person who split the waters be beaten at a game of the dozens? Does salvation come down to who comes up with the most clever remark? […]
Much of the literature and most of the sermons on this lesson focus on the miraculous nature of the event. Very few try to peer through to the meaning. The reason that so few people are spending the time to understand the lesson rather than merely trying to convince themselves that this event is believable is that most clergy and interpreters have been trained to explain the faith to the world around them. We’ve become […]
The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there,” said L.P. Hartley in his novel “The Go-Between. We think we know what is going on when we read accounts of ancient doings, but truth be told, what we experience when we hear accounts of things that happened long ago is necessarily filtered through our present experience. We simply aren’t able to inhabit the mental structures, ideas, experiences and symbolic meaning of things that […]
Jesus, in this week’s Gospel is trying to describe people who are both aware of God in the world, and people who are blind to God. He uses everyday examples of people who are able to recognize the immense value of the Kingdom of God, and when they see it in their daily life, will do something to be able to fully experience it. That is sadly lacking today. People don’t experience the Kingdom of […]
