-
·
Making him king—for Proper 12B
In this week’s reflection, we respond to the people’s reaction to a Jesus miracle: that they want to make Jesus a king by force.
-
·
Who wants a King? – the seduction of power
The challenge of crowning Jesus as king is that he doesn’t want the title. There’s a problem, too, with insisting it.
-
·
Dealing with Power
The Last Sunday after Pentecost – Proper 29BJohn 18:33-37 Collect Almighty and everlasting God, whose will it is to restore all things in your well-beloved Son, the King of kings and Lord of lords: Mercifully grant that the peoples of the earth, divided and enslaved by sin, may be freed and brought together under his…
-
·
Kings and the price of granting supremacy
We are all familiar with the saying “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” – John Dalberg-Acton. We also know that it doesn’t come from the Bible but from a historian, John Dalberg-Acton. OK, we know the first part, I had to look up who actually wrote it. This is also the stuff…
-
·
Not a King
There’s a fundamental flaw in calling Jesus the king. But it isn’t just our perception of kings. It’s how it changes our relationship to Jesus. Proper 29B | 2 Samuel 23:1-7, Psalm 132:1-13 (14-19), John 18:33-37 I’ve heard the argument for an American king. It goes something like this. Our president has two jobs: being…
-
·
King David’s Faithiness
When David was creeping on the roof, looking in windows like a perv, he saw this woman, naked, bathing. And in true Biblical form we’ll say that “lust was in his heart”. Which just sounds like the euphemistic excusing “boys will be boys” of Biblical interpretation. It makes David seem so innocent to his urges:…
-
·
Asking for what isn’t ours
We receive a GOD, who like Samuel, weeps over Saul and the people’s rejection. Or scatters seeds in strange places and allows them to grow, even without our help. Or sends us a promise in a new king, one who doesn’t rule, but teaches; who doesn’t command, but invites; who doesn’t demand, but tells stories.