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In-Between: Luke 12:57-13:9
A look at the gaps in the lectionary. This week: the gap between Proper 15C and Proper 16C. After several troubling passages and challenging preaching opportunities, Proper 16C will give us something positive to preach on. That is, as always, if we’re avoiding our context. Or dwelling on what it means for Jesus to be…
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This Tuesday of Holy Week
Jesus’s confrontation at the Temple challenges us to see past their questions of authority, but the reason for the questioning. Jesus ducks their questions because they are questioning the authority of God. On Sunday, Jesus rode into Jerusalem in a parody of authority. And after the crowds died down, he took a quick look inside…
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In the Joys and the Junk
6. Through all the great upheavals in history, God has been with the people. The quintessential question of the confused is to ask “Where is God?” In the midst of tragedy, we ask it. “Where is God?” The presupposition of the question is that God isn’t there. But why? Because we first define God as the…
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Giving Grace
The hardest challenge Jesus gives those inside the church is to recognize that the saving grace is not about who we were before, but during and after. Proper 21A | Matthew 21:23-32 Before Jesus is teaching in the Temple and these chief priests and scribes question his authority, Jesus had to get there. When we…
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Anti-Institutionalism Just Jumped the Shark
We’re all anti-institutional these days I get it. You hate institutions. You want them all to go down. Buy local. Build it up around you. Fund those things you care about. Institutions do pretty well suck. I know. I’m a member of Generation X, the generation handed anti-institutional ID cards with our latchkeys. We’ve been…
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By What Authority?
Who authorized Jesus to teach? We shouldn’t forget that the chief priests and the scribes (in other words the Temple leadership) ask Jesus a pretty fair question: ‘By what authority are you doing these things? Who gave you this authority to do them?’ They didn’t authorize this. They don’t know him. Who is Jesus to…
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The purpose of a priest
We often get this confused. The purpose of a priest is not to be Jesus for you. Or play Jesus in the front of the room or to imitate Jesus so that you can be healed. The purpose of a priest is to share the love of Jesus and teach you how to share the love…
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The Church’s leadership problem and how we can fix it
I love you, Church, but we’ve got a problem. Sometimes it seems like you are addicted to tyrants and despots. Like those Hebrews asking for a king. Or else you are addicted to ineffectual and passive leadership. The kind easily manipulated by the whims of the powerful or chided in parking lots. You make it…