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The Seduction of Empire—rejecting its offer of fake peace
In the turning point in the gospel of Mark, Jesus is confronted with Peter’s ignorance and empire’s promise of safe oppression.
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Messiah and a new kind of leader
The word “Messiah” is loaded with meaning—then and now. And that meaning is built around expectations that Jesus won’t embody.
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Jesus changes his mind
In these two encounters with the Syrophoenician woman and the deaf man, seeing Jesus change his mind allows us to do the same.
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Pure and good—for Proper 17B
How Jesus speaks to his interlocutors in this gospel can be troubling or exciting, but our focus must be what he is teaching his followers.
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On the challenge (and hope) in following Jesus
It isn’t easy to follow Jesus. He pushes his followers away when they are focused on their own stuff. How do we embrace the challenge?
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Between Proper 15 + 16 (Year B)
The ongoing themes in John 6 are easy to miss when we focus on the image Jesus offers of the bread of life. Here’s what we might miss.
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The game of not getting it
With following Jesus, the point is not to understand or to win, but to understand Jesus. To get what he is about and wants for us.
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And we keep at it
In the pattern Jesus invites us into: work, rest, move: we get to see a life of opportunity, learning, growing, and ultimately becoming more alive.