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Between the First and Second Sunday of Lent (Year B)
As Jesus offers his first Passion prediction, he does so knowing that the disciples are afraid to know what it is that they already know.
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No One Can Say
No One Can Say (Day 25 of A Simple Lent) | Wednesday In a most compelling turn, Paul leaves behind the abuse which bothered him yesterday to speak instead of what the blessed community should look like–how it should behave. But he centers it around being able to say “Jesus is Lord.” Therefore I want…
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Learning Love
It seems that they don’t want the world that Jesus is offering: the upside down economy of GOD’s divine fellowship of faith. They want to rule. Following Jesus into a different understanding of love Proper 20B | Mark 9:30-37 Returning to the Passion We remember from last week that Jesus and the disciples had gone…
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Getting behind Jesus
This is the first movement in the turning point, the turning away from the early life of Jesus and toward his destiny. The turning away from safety and toward the danger of the cross. The turning away from home and toward Jerusalem. Jesus turns toward Jerusalem before his followers are ready Proper 19B | Mark…
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For Proclaiming the Gospel, Context is Everything
Between the Lectionary and the world, we’re getting hit with fireballs: the kind of truth that burns and purifies, leaving us naked and lost. I know I wasn’t the only one on Sunday, talking about Jesus in the Temple. A story often referred to as a “cleansing” of the Temple, but more to the point,…
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The Worth of Life
Bad News, Good News, and Life Itself As much as Jesus is rebuking the Pharisees for teaching harmful stuff to the people, Jesus is opening up the very nature of life and death to them: That, of course: what lies ahead is awful. Of course none of us wants to do this. And yes, I…
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Who do you say that Jesus is?
In Sunday’s gospel story, we had the famous pair of questions Jesus asks: Who do people say that I am? Who do you say that I am? As I was writing about this idea for our parish newsletter, I realized something important. These two questions have two more hidden questions, or more precisely, two hidden…
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Two Questions About Jesus
a Homily for Proper 19B Text: Mark 8:27-38 Jesus has it rough You have got to feel for Jesus. It was so long ago that he was baptized by John in the Jordan and he took up GOD’s call. So long since he gathered His disciples two-by-two. He has been teaching them so very long…