Our first reading is paired with a Gospel passage from Luke that tells another story of healing. While keeping their distance from Jesus which is what Jewish law required of people suffering from leprosy ten lepers cry out for mercy. The text tells us that Jesus sees them (Luke 17:14). He sees them: he sees their suffering, sees
Those of you who are familiar with the Bible probably remember that after the two parables we just heard the parable of the lost sheep and the parable of the lost coin comes the parable of the prodigal son and his brother. If you ever forget how loved you are, if you ever want a refresher course in…
Listening to this admonition on Labor Day weekend, as we mark the unofficial end of summer, makes me think of the start of summer, when my family and I spent a week at a lake in New Hampshire. Every year our extended family comes to New Hampshire to visit a particular family camp, and we enjoy having a chance to…
“Hey, what a sec!” we may be saying to ourselves. “What’s going on here? Isn’t Jesus supposed to be the Prince of Peace?” And if we’re thinking of dismissing this passage as something that the historical Jesus couldn’t possibly have said, we may be chagrined to learn that some contemporary New Testament scholars argue that the pointed sa
You and I need that encouragement, don’t we? It is so easy to lose heart, so tempting to think that our efforts to serve God, our efforts to heal and protect and bring forth life on this planet are for naught. We can feel that hopelessness not only in our personal lives, but in our collective life, too. It can…
Starting today, for six weeks our lectionary includes passages from Paul’s letter to the churches of Galatia. Over these six weeks, we’ll have a chance to immerse ourselves in Galatians, to ponder the epistle almost in its entirety. I am delighted, because this letter includes one of my all-time favorite lines in the w
The other day I was having lunch with my friend Andrea Ayvazian, the pastor of the UCC church in Haydenville, and we got to talking about how curious it is that Luke says that the disciples responded to Jesus’ ascension “with great joy.” Joy? Why joy? The disciples had already said goodbye to Jesus once. They had watched him s
What a week it has been. We’ve been in shock. We’ve wept over the death of innocents. We’ve been forced to consider the softness of the human body, how vulnerable it is to being wounded and maimed. We’ve seen how swiftly a day of accomplishment and joy can be transformed into a scene of unbearable carnage and loss. We’ve wat
Yet somewhere in the dark, in this world in which it seems sometimes that no one cares we are lost there is no meaning anymore, no longer any ground for hope still, there is a house where someone is bending down to anoint another person’s feet. The gesture is an act of blessing, an anointing for burial,…
So when we hear Jesus say, “Unless you repent, you will perish,” many of us probably wince and pull back. We don’t want to be party to a religious faith that seems to promote self-righteousness, on the one hand, or abject fear, on the other. We don’t want to be like that imagined street preacher who has an angry, judging…
