Jesus
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Eating Scripture: Even the Dogs Get Scraps
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2 min read
Today I’m kicking off a weekly video series called “Eating Scripture” in which I attempt to break apart this week’s gospel in about 4 minutes or fewer to pass out the juiciest and crunchiest bits for each of us to chew on over the weekend. This week, we dive into the text (Mark 7:24-37) which contains a…
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Let the good stuff out
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6 min read
a Homily for Proper 17B Text: Mark 7:1-23 Those Dirty Hands You may have noticed that I read the whole gospel pericope, not the shortened version in the lectionary. The primary reason is because the full story makes more sense than the edited version. The second reason is because what was removed is the part…
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The Dream 2012
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3 min read
On the 49th anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, it seems fitting to reflect on where we are in fulfilling it. Back in January, I wrote this for King’s birthday: It should surprise none of us that a leader villified by the conservative white community as “uppity” would become as…
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Faith Before Understanding
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5 min read
a Homily for Proper 16B Text: John 6:56-69 What is this? Jesus has brought the people here through a swirling storm of teachings about faith, understanding, and love. As they arrive to the safety of the synagogue, he takes all of that teaching and he mixes in their likely confusion about literal and metaphorical…
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Take a Bite Out of Jesus
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6 min read
a Homily for Proper 15B Text: John 6:51-58 The first thing we notice about the gospel pericope we read this morning is that Jesus is still talking about eating. It seems as if he is always talking about food, doesn’t it? The manna, the bread, the bread of life. I am the bread of life.…
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Grumble if you must, but then trust
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7 min read
a Homily for Proper 14B Text: John 6:35, 41-51 In our gospel story, Jesus turns his attention from the crowd to the Jewish leadership. He has been talking about bread—the bread from heaven. He makes reference to the story told in Exodus. It goes a little like this. The Hebrew people, living in Egypt for…