There’s so much to unpack in this story. It happens just before the final chapters of Jesus’ journey to the cross, and it’s really his great signifying miracle, at least in the way that St. John tells the story of Salvation. Anyone who hears it is left with all sorts of questions. Why did Jesus tarry? Did he choose to let Lazarus, the person he loved so deeply, die deliberately? What was that purpose? He […]
This week’s Gospel reading tells the story of how Jesus used mud to give sight to a man who had been born without it. It is another account that will let those with understanding and real insight recognize who Jesus is and what he is doing in the World. I am following St. Irenaeus, a 2nd century bishop, martyr and commentator’s interpretation of what is happening in this passage. Jesus shows himself to be completing […]
There’s so much to talk about in this week’s lesson from the third chapter of the Gospel of St. John. There’s one of the most well known verses in America today (John 3:16), there’s Jesus’ description of the new birth and his use of metaphor for the action of the third person of the Trinity and for his own crucifixion and there’s the first appearance of Nicodemus. Over the years I’ve preached on all the […]
Each year of the lectionary, when we arrive at the First Sunday in Lent, we hear the story of how Jesus was driven in the wilderness immediately following his baptism and was test by the Satan. The First Sunday in Epiphany we hear of his baptism, and then weeks later we hear of the temptation, but in truth, there’s no gap between the two as the Gospels present the story. The wilderness immediately follows the […]
Again and again in the Bible stories, God’s people misunderstand what God is doing, or what the prophets are saying to them. We end up doing the opposite of what God desires for us – and if we listen to the prophets – we often do that when we think we’re obeying God’s will. Remember how the prophets critiqued the religious leadership of their day for observing the outward forms of the faith and at […]
Moses puts a choice before the people as he stands looking back into the wilderness from which they have traveled and they stand, on the bank of the River Jordon, looking past him into the Promised Land. It’s an incredibly poignant moment. He is about to be taken from them, and they will wait for many generations until his true successor, the Lord’s Anointed Messiah is revealed to them. Moses makes it clear what is […]
The Reign of God is not like the Kingdoms we know on Earth. God’s Reign, proclaimed by Jesus is not based on retribution and extravagant violence like the Empires we know now. God’s Reign is characterized by justice, truth and repentance. Rather than seeking our own way, we collectively seek to know God’s will. This is described in the Sermon on the Mount as systematically as much as it is anywhere else in Scripture. The […]
We read the Beatitudes from the Sermon on the Mount this week in our Gospel lesson. I remember the day years ago when I was invited to preach for the women of the Northern Province of the Moravian Church on this topic. It caused me to spend weeks in study about the context and true meaning of Jesus’ words in the part of the Sermon on the Mount. He’s teaching us what the Reign of […]
In this week’s version of the Call of the Disciples (Matthew’s version – we heard John’s last week), the way Matthew views the events of Jesus’ life colors the way that he tells the story of the Gospel. For Matthew, there’s no such thing as a random bit of scripture being included as filler. Everything has a purpose, and every seeming digression is being done to place a particular event into a larger context of […]
We hear St. John the Evangelist’s account of Jesus’ baptism by John the Baptist today. Last week we heard St. Matthew’s version. The accounts are similar, but not identical. That’s not surprising for a number reasons; different eyewitnesses, different authors and different purposes in telling the story for instance. But what is striking in this account is what happens the next day. Andrew hears something that St. John says of Jesus, perhaps in passing. But […]
