In this week’s Gospel reading, Jesus sends the disciples as heralds into the countryside to proclaim the Peace to people and the Kingdom of God. When they return, they joyfully report that they have witnessed the forces arrayed against God routed and fleeing before them. Jesus responds to their joy and triumph by telling them, prophetically, that he saw the Satan fall like lightning. The Ruler of this World’s time of dominion is coming to […]
Paul writes to the Galatians and strongly affirms their freedom in the Gospel. But he warns that their freedom can become a base of operations for earthly passions and emotions to create division and pain. The reading from Luke’s Gospel this week, where the disciples want Jesus to smite the Samaritans because they don’t agree with Jesus’ behavior, is an example of what Paul is talking about. So too is this long month of the […]
When St. Paul writes his letter to the people of the Church in Galatia, he’s writing because of a challenge to his teaching, and a change in the way that they are living out their faith. Paul taught them that the Law of Moses was only part of the truth of God. He taught that the rest of God’s will for Creation was revealed in the life and person of Jesus. And Paul taught that […]
Is God one or is God three? The answer is as you’d expect; “yes”. You’ll most likely encounter the nature of God that you are seeking. Is Love a state or is Love a relationship? The answer is “yes”; it depends how you are looking. Is Light a particle or a wave? Again, the answer is “yes”; it depends how you look. The Doctrine of the Triune God contains within it a great truth and […]
The story of Pentecost is best understood in the context of the story of the Tower of Babel. The stories in the Bible have layers and layers of meaning, and both of these narratives contain multitudes. The Tower of Babel at its core is a critique of human desire that is separate from God’s action. When nations work their human designs, they are destined to fail. The Day of Pentecost is the recasting of that […]
It has been a difficult couple of weeks for our nation. We have suffered through multiple mass shooting events. Two in particular by teenage males, a racially motivated in Buffalo and the shooting of school children in Texas, have been shattering. We are in pain. We know we need to do something, but we’ve known that for a long time and nothing seems to change. The majority of people in this country want to change […]
I’m not aware that I’ve ever preached on this passage of scripture before today. The gospel reading from John tells of a man who waited thirty-eight years to be healed, waiting by the waters of the pool of Beth-zatha, near the Sheep Gate in the Temple in Jerusalem, for the waters to be troubled. When the waters were troubled, the first one to enter was healed. But he was never first. Jesus encounters him. He […]
Why is so hard to love one another? It’s such a rare thing that the powers of this world plan on our apparently endless capacity for division and strife in the Church. The division starts from the beginning and continues to this day. The division was the proximate cause of Jesus’ death (by Judas’ betrayal) and conflict causes almost all of the Epistles to be written. Jesus asks us to do just one thing in […]
The fourth Sunday after Easter is traditionally called Good Shephard Sunday; and we read passages from Scripture where Jesus explains that he is the Good Shephard, the one that will lay down his life for his sheep. This week’s reading comes from the end of his teaching on this language and imagery. It takes place in the Winter, in Jerusalem, and is followed by the account of raising Lazarus from the dead. There’s much to […]
This week we hear the final chapter of John’s Gospel. Like much of John’s Gospel, it’s different but similar to the other stories about Jesus. But this is placed at the very end of the Gospel, and follows a few verses that could well have been an original ending. John’s Gospel starts with an extraordinary Prologue; “In the beginning was the Word…” and ends with this passage as an Epilogue. I don’t think that’s by […]
Entangled States 