In our Gospel, the word Jesus uses for repent means something very different from simply confessing sins and feeling sorry for them. Repent in the Greek of the New Testament is the word metanoia, which translates more literally to “change your mind,” “renew your mind,” “take on a different way of thinking.” This is what Jesus means when he calls on us to repent.
Read More“Have you ever been Baptized?” the preacher asked. “What’s that?” he murmured. “If I Baptize you,” the preacher said, “you’ll be able to go to the Kingdom of Christ. You’ll be washed in the river of suffering, son, and you’ll go by the deep river of life. Do you want that?” “Yes,” the child said, and thought, I won’t go back to the apartment then, I’ll go under the river. “You won’t be the same again,” the preacher said. “You’ll count.”
Read MoreOur Gospel reading this morning, the poetic prologue to John’s gospel, tells us that creation itself is woven from the Word of God, this Word that is Christ and was with God from the beginning—" All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.” Christ, this light, was meant to be seen in warblers, the truth of God’s love was to be heard in the laughter of children or witnessed in the aroma of a forest after a rain. Creation, from the beginning, spoke of God because it was made through the Word of God and breathed from His life and echoed His light. Christ was the language in which the book of creation was written.
Read MoreIf, by chance, you have taken any wrong turns in life, or failed to let other drivers into your lane, or ended up in construction zones far away from your intended destination, hear the angels’ message to fear not. Remember that God is in the business of sending signs to reassure us of God’s favor.
Read MoreThose in power like Ahaz, those in power like so many of us, can pretend that God is big and distant because we like to take care of things ourselves. We want a God too big for our lives so that we can be our own gods in all the details and decisions of our existence. But those like Joseph and Mary, the powerless peasants waiting in expectation for God to redeem Israel, see by the light of the Spirit’s witness that God is here among us. They have felt the presence of God and recognized the truth that God has never been far. As the theologian Stanley Hauerwas writes: “God does not need to intervene in creation, because God has never been absent from creation.”
Read MoreThis time of year, we always seem to find ourselves in a confused world of ominous headlines and twinkling Christmas lights. The world looks like a six. But we are once again invited to throw our faith into a world of nines, into a world where God became flesh to heal it all.
Read MoreEvery year I strive to be more prepared for the season of preparation. But life gets hectic, and I get distracted, and so every year, on the second Sunday of Advent, there’s John the Baptist, the voice crying out in the wilderness saying, “Hannah! You’re breaking the ornaments!”
Read MoreThe church, in its wisdom, decided to begin its great story with a passage from somewhere in the middle, to find us where we need to be found, still in the middle of our own stories. Jesus wants us to embrace him now, before we know what happens next. Because in this anxious and fearful world, being awake to Christ and watchful for the kingdom is simply a better way to live. Happy New Year.
Read MoreWhat Luke wants us to know about kingship hinges on that very last sentence. “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.” No other king in the history of the world has been able to promise that, and Christ keeps that promise still. What Christ offers, forgiveness of sin, a new life of discipleship, the joy of God’s grace, that is true kingship. Paul’s kingly tribute is well-deserved. But we can’t have any of it without indignity of the Cross.
Read MoreThe world is clearly a tumultuous place, it always has been. Sometimes even grand temples fall. Whenever disaster strikes, the false gods of gloom and doom show up and want us to worship them. We get to choose.
Read MoreGod is already doing the work of resurrection, God is the God not of the dead but of the living, and no child of God will be left out of that loving life. We can move boldly in the world, with the confidence of the new creation, to join in God’s work of renewal. With Jesus, already risen, God’s new creation has begun, not in some distant heaven but in our midst where heaven is coming to earth. Why settle for the compromises of a corrupt world when we can claim our call as children of God and live in the confident hope of God’s action?
Read MoreIf heaven has anything to teach us before we get there, it is that we can let go of our currencies of shame.
Read MoreWe tend to think of saints as spiritual exemplars whose lives would be nearly impossible (much less desirable) to emulate. And although many of the saints do have exemplary faith and remarkable deeds to their names, underneath all that, some were absolutely tragic, and most were regular folks, a little rough around the edges, who left behind not a few unflattering stories.
Read MoreWe are often off tune and out of sync, our pitches wandering from the melodies of our lives, so that discord erupts. We need a key, a note to which we can align the voice of our soul, that wholeness of mind and body and spirit that is meant to always dwell in the chorus of God’s love. The practice of getting in key with that love, of returning again to the tune of our truest selves, is the practice of humble prayer and that is the subject of our Gospel reading this morning.
Read MoreGiven the options, I pray to be more like that faithful, persistent widow. She is the antidote to cynicism and despair. I think Jesus knew that we would need this antidote from time to time. So one day he told a simple parable about our need to pray always, and not to lose heart.
Read More“When the risen Jesus commissions the apostles, he seems to envision Samaria as a kind of threshold between the Jewish homeland and worldwide ministry: “You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8)” This insight got me thinking. How are borders and thresholds connected? Are there other ways that physical borders serve as spiritual thresholds?
Read MoreIf you worry that a show about makeovers is a strange place to find the Gospel, I suggest that the Gospel itself is sometimes strange. It’s not always about a warm fuzzy feeling or a heart that’s been moved. To my surprise, the show delivers on this, too. As evidence, I present to you an episode of “Queer Eye” about a firefighter.
“In the first year of the 21st century, a man standing by a highway in the middle of America pulled from his pocket his life savings – $30 – laid it inside a phone booth, and walked away. He was 39 years old, came from a good family, and had been to college. He was not mentally ill, nor an addict. His decision appears to have been an act of free will by a competent adult.” So begins Mark Sundeen’s book, The Man Who Quit Money, which traces the remarkable life of Daniel Suelo who has lived the last nineteen years without earning or using money, accepting government or organized charity, or even bartering.
Read MoreThe manager is as wasteful and unlikeable as the prodigal son. But this story is grittier, more plain, and more offensive.
Read MoreAs I’ve learned with my cars, when the narrative is all about blame, responsibility goes out the window. God does not want us to waste any time weighing evidence and assigning blame for the lost people of the world. He just wants us to go out and find them.
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