Kingdom of GOD
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Coming Home
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7 min read
The Spirit which came upon him and moved him to go into the desert. Now within him. No disciples yet. Just the Spirit. Jesus returns with one heck of a sermon Epiphany 3C | Luke 4:14-21 The first sermon For as powerful as his storytelling and rhetoric is, if this is an example of Jesus’s preaching,…
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Blessed To Make Peace
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3 min read
For our darkest hours Jesus gives us a vision of the Kingdom of GOD and the blessed community. When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the…
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It is not so among you
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8 min read
Jesus shares with them what the Kingdom of GOD is like, GOD’s Great Economy, not so they have something to look forward to later, but so that they would live in it now. Right here. On the road to Jerusalem. The Great Sort has already begun Proper 24B | Mark 10:35-45 The Approach Before we…
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The one acceptable hypocrisy
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5 min read
The biggest problem we’re facing in the 21st Century involves the limits of inclusion. It is at the heart of the so-called culture war, the immigration debate, and post-9/11 foreign policy. We are seeing it now in matters of race: in policing and in flags: and in matters of guns and safety. And we are (quite remarkably)…
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Forgiving GOD
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9 min read
how our understanding of forgiveness is too small a Homily for Proper 19A | Text: Matthew 18:21-35 The volume of forgiveness When Peter asks about forgiveness, about the volume of forgiveness, it triggers a cascade of central teachings to our faith. Teachings that are the foundation of everything. On the surface, it is a simple enough…
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Confronting Death
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7 min read
Jesus’s turn toward Jerusalem, following where we don’t want to go, and facing our own fears a Homily for Proper 17 A | Text: Matthew 16:21-28 Fearing Responsibility We are in the middle of a conversation. We always are. The passages of our lives are always small segments of a much longer story. A common place…