There are many ways to read a parable. It’s worth remembering that no one was literally reporting on what Jesus said as he was saying it. The Gospel accounts are at least a generation, and likely two generations, removed from the actual events. The interpretation that we read of the parable in this Gospel is one that made sense in the particular circumstances of the community in that generation. Perhaps it’s what the Apostles remembered, […]
As humans, we experience a world of boundaries and limitations. There can be enough for all, but it will require us to be attentive and to plan. But that’s not how it is with God, or with the abundance of God’s realm. God’s infinite riches and blessings require us to grow beyond our human experience of limited resources. In the parable of the sower from Matthew’s Gospel, we are presented with an image of God […]
In this week’s Gospel, Jesus points out that people are criticizing him because he is meeting with the people that others think are beyond the reach of God. And that people are ignoring John the Baptist when we urge people to walk away from their sins and return to God’s presence. One group rejects Jesus’ for his tolerance, and the other rejects or ignores John for his call to holiness. When we stop worrying about […]
This week’s Gospel presents a different way of thinking about who is worthy of God’s Realm. Jesus tells us that it’s what we do to others that matters, not what we’ve attained for ourselves. He even points out that we can get the same reward as someone who is a prophet or has lived a righteous life simply by being in relationship to them. The same reward! That’s not how the society we actually live […]
There is something universal in the human desire to draw boundaries and barriers; to make sure that only the proper sorts of people or things are included in a community. The Bible is full of examples of God seemingly choosing between one group of people and rejecting another; loving one group and hating another. But the truth of the matter is more complicated, and for just about every biblical example of God rejecting one group […]
This week’s Gospel reading tells of Jesus sending out his disciples “like sheep” into a world filled with “wolves.” He tells them to proclaim tidings of peace to the communities they visit, to heal the sick and to cast out the demons that oppress the people they meet. And then he warns them that doing these things, these kind things, will cause some people to attack them and to beat them. He goes on to […]
This week’s readings seem to be a strange juxtaposition of two call narratives, that of Abraham and of Matthew. And the Gospel reading for the day, at first reading, seems to contain to unrelated narratives itself, the call of Matthew and the indignation that causes and also the healing of a woman suffering hermorages and of the daughter of the leader of a synagogue. Two calls and two healings. It’s been a puzzle for me […]
A few months ago I posted some thoughts inspired by my learning why it is that most plants on Earth are green, or have green leaves. I explained that green leaves, on a planet that orbits a green star, would seem surprising to a person who was thinking about designing an efficient system for creating food and energy for plants on Earth. As I explain in this sermon, the reason that plants have choosen this […]
The most common miracle that we experience is, I suppose, the weekly celebration of the Holy Eucharist. As we gather as a community around God’s table, the presider says the words that call to mind the night that Jesus shared his last meal with his disciples before he was crucified. The words we hear recall to us what Jesus said that night, but they also re-present the bread and the wine as he did, and […]
A bishop I once served with used to say to us, with a look of joy upon his face, that, because of the Ascension, there was a human heart beating beside the throne of God. I was more impressed back then with the look of joy than I was with the idea, as you don’t often see bishops with a look of joy upon their faces. It was years later, after I became a parent […]
