Scripture: Matthew 5: 38-48 Jesus said, “Be children of your heavenly Father”. In this radical statement, Jesus updated or even upended traditional dogmas. In the Sermon on the Mount he gave a glimpse of what the Kingdom of Heaven might be like. Whether we view it as coming in this world or the next, it’s […]
Scripture: Matthew 5: 13-20 You are salt; you are light. Why does Jesus call us Salt and Light?? Jesus calls us Salt Yes, you. You are salt – the salt of the earth – You. You are the salt of the earth. Nor will be …. When you are older, when you learn to be […]
Scripture: Matthew 5: 1-12 Summary It’s hard to interpret the Beatitudes, even though they are so familiar. Too often they promote a theology of “pi in the sky when you die.” That can be an excuse not to consider the less fortunate in society. The Beatitudes challenge those of us who have good fortune in […]
Scripture: Matthew 4: 12-22; 1 Corinthians 1: 10-17 Is the call of Jesus’ first disciples a good model for discipleship for modern Christians? The Church tells us that we must give up everything to follow Jesus. Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote, “When Christ calls a man, he bids him to come and die.” But most of us […]
Scripture: Genesis 2-3; Matthew 4: 1-11 We usually read the account of the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness on the first Sunday of Lent. The susceptibility to temptation is present within each of us. It is part of our human make-up. But humanity has eaten the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good […]
Scripture: Matthew 3: 1-17 Baptism and Dismissal Baptism and Dismissal embrace the same idea: that the Christian mission is to preach the Gospel. Our Lord’s baptism initiated his own mission. Our own baptismal promises call us to the same undertaking. That is why every church service the words of a Dismissal, such as this. “Go […]
Scripture: Matthew 2: 13-23 The Slaughter of the Holy Innocents is not just a Biblical story; it is our story today. The Holy Family became refugees, when King Herod’s fear and anger at the thought of a rival King of the Jews led him to carry out that atrocity. I was quite young when […]
Scripture: Matthew 2: 1-12 Today’s Bible story is a parable for our own faith journey. The Magi came from far away. It took them a long time. They saw a bright star in the sky. It led them to the right location to find the Messiah. Like the Magi, we may imagine meeting Jesus by […]
Scripture: Luke 2: 1-20 Is the Christmas story true? What does it mean to say that the Christmas story is true? To ask this question involves thinking about what we mane by ‘truth’. The Oglala Lakota Indian Black Elk said, “I don’t know if it really happened that way but the story is true.” In […]
“The Christmas Story in verse” presents the Annunciation and the Nativity in rhyming iambic pentameters