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When we are all blind
This isn’t a story of healing, but of spiritual blindness. A story about skepticism and the rhetorical knots we tie ourselves in. A story about seeing the truthLent 4A | John 9:1-41 The centerpiece of the story has to be the miracle, right? A stranger walks up, gives a man sight, and then keeps on…
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Seeing Jesus
Why do bad things happen? That isn’t the question this passage answers. Nor does it answer why we suffer, why some are blind or disabled, or why some of us are total jerks. Instead, it tells a story. A story of people willfully blind to the beauty of God. Lent 4A | John 9:1-41 The…
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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…
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Why Trouble the Teacher
Why Trouble the Teacher (Day 17 of A Simple Lent) Monday One of the most profound tools in the evangelist’s toolbox is the literary frame. It’s surprising, really when you think about it. You’re telling a pretty amazing story about a dude who can heal people and control the weather. The substance of the story…
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How a blind beggar became the greatest disciple
This final moment has a blind man in front of them, but can they see him? He is shouting for Jesus, but can they hear him? Is the man like a tree, walking to them? Are his shouts like the buzz of a mosquito? Do they not understand yet, even now, at the end of…
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The scandal of Jesus
Jesus doesn’t force us to believe. Jesus doesn’t want us to work on the earnestness of our belief: just believe harder – believe more – believe right: to force us to get it. Jesus gives us signs and invitations and these opportunities to see something truly profound: to see this life with a sense…
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To make people whole again
Could it be that we’ve already taken Jesus more seriously than that? That we’ve spent 2000 years trying to bring the Kingdom closer? And could it also be that we are far from being done? That there are many among us who need to be restored, both to this community and within this congregation? Could…
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Choosing GOD means looking funny
The sort of liberation Jesus offers comes with a helping of crazy. Proper 5B | Mark 3:20-35, 1 Samuel 8:4-20 Mistaking GOD for a demon This morning we truly begin the season after Pentecost. Unlike the other seasons of Advent, Christmas, the season after the Epiphany, Lent, and Easter, this season does not have an…