• New Life

    New Life

    Here Jesus comes and that woman, Mary, who I imagined hitting Jesus’s chest in anger and mourning, whose brother has been brought back from the dead, this Mary, takes a pound of ointment, which is brought in a giant vessel and she is going to wash Jesus’s feet and prepare him for his burial. Mary…

  • I Will Be With You

    I Will Be With You

    I AM and the presence of GOD with us. I Will Be With You (Day 28 of A Simple Lent)  |  Saturday We take for granted that GOD is everywhere. But until GOD tells Moses to take a message to the people, to Pharaoh, to share the good news of liberation to the captive Israelites, and…

  • The Beloved

    The Beloved

    Before diving into the Transfiguration, we have to back up just a little. The Transfiguration is part 2. First, we have to discuss part 1. The Beloved (Day 27 of A Simple Lent)  |  Friday The second half of chapter 8 is the most important part of the gospel we call Mark. It is the great…

  • Did Not Know Joseph

    Did Not Know Joseph

    How forgetting church history can mutate the future Did Not Know Joseph (Day 26 of A Simple Lent)  |  Thursday To understand our church history, we should look no further than the move from Genesis to Exodus. While it certainly doesn’t explain the history itself, it reveals that human tendency to lose sight of who we are and…

  • No One Can Say

    No One Can Say

    No One Can Say (Day 25 of A Simple Lent)  |  Wednesday In a most compelling turn, Paul leaves behind the abuse which bothered him yesterday to speak instead of what the blessed community should look like–how it should behave. But he centers it around being able to say “Jesus is Lord.” Therefore I want…

  • Unworthy

    Unworthy

    Unworthy (Day 24 of A Simple Lent)  |  Tuesday Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be answerable for the body and blood of the Lord. What does Paul mean by “unworthy manner” and what does that have to do with Communion? I had never given…

  • Ephphatha – Be Opened

    Ephphatha – Be Opened

      Ephphatha (Day 23 of A Simple Lent) Monday Then looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, ‘Ephphatha’, that is, ‘Be opened.’ The daily lectionary actually carved up one of the most challenging moments in Jesus’s ministry, in which, giving us the conclusion today before moving on to one of the seemingly most typical. In…

  • A Father’s Love

    A Father’s Love

    Who could blame him if he didn’t want to go to that party? I wouldn’t. I bet you wouldn’t either. He’s rightfully mad. All these years – nothing – gone to waste. The Lost Sons and our fear of intimacy Lent 4C | Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32 [bctt tweet=”You have enough. And everyone must have enough.”…