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The Beasts and the Angels
How Jesus’s time in the wilderness reminds us of our own journey. So this thing we call The Temptation of Jesus isn’t really about temptation, or about the Tempter or about GOD and the problem of evil at all. It’s about experience, creation, and GOD. It is about living in this world that GOD has…
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The Servant God
A mother-in-law’s gratitude at odds with the public spectacle. Jesus leaves town, perhaps because of his notoriety, but perhaps also because the people are more interested in him, in the wonders that he has done, in the power that he possesses. And not in what GOD is calling him to actually do. Not in what…
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The New Authority
Jesus shows us why our ideas of power are only half right a Homily for Epiphany 4B | Text: Mark 1:21-28 Authority Today’s story about Jesus leaving the seashore and heading to the synagogue to teach is obviously about authority. It says so. Twice. But it gets a little complicated. Yes, it is about authority…
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Called to Transformation
How Jesus calls us to act now to do something audacious, in spite of ourselves, precisely because GOD is audacious a Homily for Epiphany 3B | Text: Mark 1:14-20 Calling I love these call stories: these stories of Jesus calling the disciples to follow him. I think they’re pure gold for us. They may not be…
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Why I Love the Call Stories
Most preachers love the psalms and parables. Me, I’ll take the call stories. The stories where Jesus collects followers like I collected baseball cards and comic books. Intentionally: with respect for big names and the common ones alike. Of course the other stories are sexier. The enduring parables like The Prodigal Son(s), the Good Samaritan, the…
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Repent and Become
And here, at the font, is where we begin. We get the chance to repent and return. We get the chance to realign and to be given a new opportunity. To shake that Etch-a-Sketch we call a life and try again. We get to go through baptism once, but we can keep getting wet. We…
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To Be Continued
The never-ending story of GOD a Homily for Advent 2B | Text: Mark 1:1-8 The Beginning The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. This gospel, given to us by the writer we call Mark, opens with a declaration of beginning. It does not say this is the beginning,…
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Outside the walls of the city
a homily for Epiphany 6B Text: Mark 1:40-45 Nudy Trees My daughter and I have this little game. We point out the nudy trees to one another. She shouts: “That tree’s nudy!” Then she squeals and says “there’s another one!” I do it too. Then I point…