Jerusalem

  • Being Disciples

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    In seeking Jesus, we see people at their most invested. In clamoring for power and preserving status, we see us at our least.

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  • In the Morning: Tuesday of Holy Week

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    The Jesus Movement is actually all about authority. If we recognize how Jesus challenged their understanding of authority on Sunday and again on Monday and then witness the fig tree “withered away to its roots” we may see that we, as the disciples, are the witnesses.

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  • The Following Day: Monday of Holy Week

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    “On the following day” Read the text: Mark 11:12-19 There are so few opportunities to see the anger of Jesus. We get so lulled by the images of the sweet Jesus, the stained-glass stick figure or the imagined bearded Caucasian with the sheep on his back and the children at his feet, that the Jesus with…

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  • One Week: Finding Jesus in our approach to Holy Week

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    Palm Sunday  |  Mark 11:1-11   Learning Holy Week I must have been 9 or 10 when I realized that the story didn’t make sense. I could follow the main elements of the story. I could make sense of the basic plot points. But there were holes. And the way we told it just confused…

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  • Approaching Jerusalem: Palm Sunday

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    “When they were approaching Jerusalem” Read the text: Mark 11:1-11. When Jerusalem is involved, we are reminded of its fractured history. Its division. Its failure. We even see Jerusalem as a source of emotional (not just literal) pain for Jesus. We are so taught to approach Holy Week with dread. That we might look past “Hosanna!”…

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  • Confronting Death

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    Jesus’s turn toward Jerusalem, following where we don’t want to go, and facing our own fears a Homily for Proper 17 A  |  Text: Matthew 16:21-28   Fearing Responsibility We are in the middle of a conversation. We always are. The passages of our lives are always small segments of a much longer story. A common place…

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  • Speaking: Palm Sunday and the liberation of Jesus

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    a Sermon for Palm Sunday A Text: Matthew 21:1-11 Something to Say What would you say and how would you say it? That was the basis of the writing exercise we did Wednesday night.* Imagine that you have a prime time block on TV on Thursday night; 50 million people are watching, you have a…

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  • Walking Between Two Worlds

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    a homily for Proper 23CText: Luke 17:11-19 If we were to take out a map to look for Jesus, where He is in the gospel, we’d find He isn’t really that far from where He started. Jesus is heading to Jerusalem, which is in Judea. Directly north of Judea is Samaria. North of that is…

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