Jesus describes a world where the poor are lifted up, the mourners are comforted, the peacemakers are honored, and those who suffer for righteousness are named as blessed. Micah describes a people shaped by justice, kindness, and humble faithfulness. Both texts point toward a way of life that runs directly against the grain of the principalities and powers of this world. The message of the Cross is that this way of life — this way […]
We are never really ready to respond when God appears in our life and calls us to action. And that doesn't seem to matter. What matters is trusting that God will supply what we lack as we respond in faith to what God expects.
[…] How does the sacrifice of one, the offering of the Lamb, create a community, a movement, a new world? I think a glimpse of an answer comes from one of America’s great philosophers of the early twentieth century: Josiah Royce. Josiah Royce (1855–1916) was an American philosopher associated with absolute idealism, best known for his work on loyalty, community, and the moral meaning of shared life. He wrote in the late nineteenth and early […]
Epiphany is a season that calls us to notice those moments when God breaks through into our lives. Scripture is full of such theophanies, little theophanies — moments when we catch a glimpse of God’s presence. Think, for instance, of Moses before the burning bush, a shepherd in the wilderness encountering flame that does not consume. Or Jacob, exhausted and frightened, laying his head on a stone while fleeing from his brother and dreaming of […]
Once we see how Matthew reads history, we are forced to ask a more uncomfortable question: If God’s saving work repeats and deepens across time, where is it happening now? Where is the Christ Child today? Not sentimentally – but concretely. Where is new life appearing that unsettles old power? Where is hope being born in places that seem too small, too ordinary, or too marginal to matter? Where are children – and others – […]
At the end of the Gospel we hear on Christmas Eve, we are told that Mary pondered these things in her heart. She did not rush to explain them. She did not try to resolve all the questions. She held them—patiently, prayerfully—allowing their meaning to unfold over time. That may be the most faithful response available to us right now. Rather than rushing ahead to the next obligation, the next resolution, the next task, what […]
An excerpt from my sermon linked below: Christmas has a way of feeling as though it exists outside of time. The music, the ritual, the familiarity can give the impression that we are stepping into something eternal. And in a sense, we are. But at the heart of this celebration is not an idea or a feeling. It is an event. Something that happened on a particular night, in a particular place, to particular people. […]
The portion of the Gospel according to Matthew we read this day tells the story of Jesus’ birth in a way that is, at first glance, surprisingly restrained. There are no shepherds here, no angels filling the sky with song, no frantic journey to Bethlehem. Instead, Matthew gives us a quiet, almost domestic scene, focused not on Mary, but on Joseph. Joseph, we are told, is a righteous man. And his righteousness shows itself not […]
We arrive this week at a kind of turn toward Christmas. Advent has its own pace — measured, expectant, leaning toward the horizon — but today the season deepens and brightens at the same time. This Sunday has a name all its own: Gaudete Sunday. The Sunday when we rejoice. The Sunday of the rose candle — if your Advent wreath includes such a thing. It is the liturgical hint that the long night is […]
The peace that Isaiah envisions is not a ceasefire, not a truce, but a total reordering of human life around the presence of God. And again, Christians recognize this in Christ. He is the one who makes peace — not by force, not by intimidation, but through reconciliation. He is the one who stretches out his arms on the cross to draw all people to himself. He is the one who rises from the grave […]
