There is perhaps no better time of year for talking about the gift of seeing than autumn, especially this one, when the trees seem on fire, blazing from yellow to orange to red; the time of year when the light falls warmer on the ground. And here in the church there has been plenty to … Continue reading
Nicodemus strikes us as very different most of the characters we find in the Gospels. What does this dignified scholar and legal expert have in common with Galilean fishermen, with the blind and lame? His story is complicated, ambiguous, and extraordinarily powerful. It depends very much on how you read this story, but I take … Continue reading
As I started thinking about biblical wisdom, I thought it might be a good idea to check out what other, wiser authors had said about the topic. So I entered the search term “biblical wisdom” into the Amazon Kindle shop, where you buy e-books. And I discovered that for basically any of life’s myriad challenges, … Continue reading
John the Baptist is a pretty intense kind of dude. Thin and gangly; wild-haired and unwashed; existing on a diet of locusts and honey, wearing rough animal skins as clothing; wandering the desert to commune with the holy one, Yahweh, and proclaim in no uncertain terms the power, sweeping, irresistible, onward march of the coming … Continue reading
ospel of Luke tells us two parallel stories – they come almost one almost right after the other – about a rich man and Jesus. The story of Zacchaeus in chapter 19 is the second of these. The first, which comes in chapter 18, we did not read today, but you are probably already familiar with … Continue reading
I don’t know about you, but Palm Sunday is one of my favorite Sundays of the church year. Maybe even my favorite Sunday. I loved it as a child, too: singing Hosannas and “All Glory, Laud and Honor”; waving palm branches and joining in the Jesus parade. And when you are a child, it just … Continue reading
The last time I preached, about a month ago, the gospel reading for the day was the parable of the great banquet. That parable, as you remember, ended with the underdressed guest being tossed into the “outer darkness” into the “weeping and gnashing of teeth.” As I looked up the readings for this Sunday I … Continue reading
This morning we find ourselves standing with Jesus on the outskirts of Jerusalem, there beyond the city walls, where the stones of the city give way to olive trees and scrub brush. We, the followers of Christ, are trailing after Jesus, who is now a man with a purpose, a man on a mission. He … Continue reading
Haven’t well all heard the same sermon on this poor woman? As Fred Craddock writes: ” Evangelists aplenty have assumed that the brighter her nails, the darker her mascara and the shorter her skirt, the greater the testimony to the power of the converting word.” Let’s try for something else, shall we? ** Imagine high noon … Continue reading
Today I’m returning briefly to the blog-o-sphere to promote the work of contemporary poet Marie Howe. Thanks to a friend who always posts what poetry he’s reading on Facebook, I recently clicked over to read a remarkable poem called The Star Market on the New Yorker. “The people Jesus loved were shopping at the Star … Continue reading
Jesus Scribbles 