Who is missing from our table today? Today in Mark’s Gospel, we have a violent and gruesome story. I mean, King Herod (not the same King Herod we hear about in the birth narratives) asks for the head of John the Baptizer on a plate. But let’s set that story in the bigger picture —…
Our Hebrew scripture today begins with a plea to establish home. There is certainly a sense of the person connected to it being a defining aspect of the idea of home. But there is also this place — this home — that binds the family together. We hear the prophet Ezekiel describe these people as…
Today’s lectionary texts invite us to consider the universal need for healing. We need healing of our experience of loss, of our sense of moral failure, greed, brokenness of body, mind, spirit, and relationships. We need social transformation. Given the darkness of our time, we need to pray for personal, congregational, communal, national, and worldwide…
How will we respond to Jesus in our lives today? Today’s Gospel opens with the phrase, “On that day.” It is so brief that we could almost ignore it. But this short transitory phrase is important for setting the stage for today’s familiar story of the calming of the storm. I did some further research…
There is a rabbinic teaching method called “charaz.” It means stringing pearls, and the rabbi would spit out image after image, wisdom saying after wisdom saying, parable after parable in a seemingly random way. It was designed to tell a larger truth by focusing on small details or to tell about a whole by examining…
“Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.” (Mk 3.34-5) There’s a lot going on today in the Gospel reading. The author of Mark takes us from setting the scene, to talking about Jesus’ family, to Jesus being accused of being possessed by…
What is the Trinity? Today is Trinity Sunday, one of the few celebrations of the Christian Year that commemorates a reality and doctrine rather than an event – for example, the birth of Jesus Christ or the descending of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples – or person – like Blessed Martin, Saint Paul, or…
It is a tradition, in some churches, to offer this morning’s lesson from Acts in a slightly unusual way. Because the reading tells of the disciples being inspired by the Holy Spirit to speak in different tongues, some churches try to recreate this experience by having not just one reader for the lesson, but a…
Today in the book of Acts, we experience a common event in the life of the church. We see a vacancy. And we move to plug that gap. Rarely do we stop to consider whether the gap really needs to be filled. Today, some are rejected and some are accepted. And the wheels keep turning…
What if we had that same “expectation” of hospitality as we find in Scripture? Our first reading today opens with the words, “While Peter was still speaking.” Well what was he still speaking about? Backing up just a little bit, Peter has summarized Jesus’ earthly ministry. He told the crowd that in Jesus’ baptism, God…
What are we waiting for? I’ve mentioned that the Vestrymembers and I are touring a book called Claiming Resurrection in the Dying Church by Anna Olson. So far, we’ve looked at how it’s hard to welcome people in when we haven’t made room for them physically. Next, we’ll be looking at what it means to…
Everybody needs a shepherd Those of you who are familiar with art may recall that many Medieval painters, particularly in Germany, painted many depictions of biblical scenes with the curious twist of dressing the biblical characters in the contemporary garb of the Middle Ages. Whether it is the scene in the Bethlehem stable or the one…
