Jesus’s message about prayer is less about the words, “Our father… hallowed be… thy kingdom… give us… forgive us…” It is much more about this: You already know how to do it.
What if being who we most dearly believe ourselves to be involves taking on the identity of our enemy?
Mark 12: 28-34
We are well into Mark’s gospel. The end of our liturgical year is near. Jesus is in Jerusalem. And his time for teaching is short. So in case you haven’t been paying attention, Jesus explains the whole meaning of life in two bite-sized lessons: Love God with your whole heart. Love your neighbor as yourself.
Sure we’ve heard the words over and over. But do we live them over and over? Is the message fresh and alive in us… […]
In Jesus we have found the real God Particle. But there is still so much more to know about the genius that created all and the love that redeems all.
Mark 6: 14-29
Why does Mark interrupt his revelation of the divinity of Jesus to relate in detail the evil doings of the Herod clan? Because we need to be reminded of where sin starts and where it leads. Satan’s sin of pride is at the center of this evil web that morphs into lust and murder. Herod’s pride placed him above the law. He felt free to desire and to do anything he pleased. His wife Herodias is willing to […]
Let’s also learn from how Jesus handles rejection. It doesn’t ruin his day. It doesn’t put him into an inert funk. It energizes him. He accepts it as a challenge and he passes that challenge on to us.
How many times have we given things up for dead? How many good intentions have we failed to act on? How many relationships have we neglected? How many chances to forgive have we ignored? How many chances to ask forgiveness have we let slide? How many calls for help have we ignored? How many opportunities to witness Christ’s love have we passed up?
Luke 24: 36b-48
Any fair assessment of this week’s gospel would rate the disciples as pretty slow on the uptake. In various gospel accounts, five times the risen Christ shows his friends that the prophesies concerning his Resurrection were all true. He had been taken away from them… been tortured… been crucified… died and was buried. But now, he is risen in glory. He is not a ghost. He is living flesh and blood… their friend and teacher, returned in triumph […]
Bonhoeffer imagines the church “under the cross.” So too our gospel reading for today turns our faces toward the cross and dares to reimagine what it means, just as we are being called to reimagine the Church and what it means in this time and place.
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