Category Archives: Sunday Morning

Lostness

Posted on by
4

The Israelites in the first reading are lost but they don’t know it yet. St. Paul knows he was lost and has been found. Like Moses, St. Paul is preaching to religious insiders. Jesus is preaching to insiders, telling these parables to religious insiders who are pretty sure they’ve got it all down and could never imagine they are lost. Could never imagine that “lost” is not always out there beyond the flock, outside the sheepfold, apart from everyone – world of unbeliever, sinner, backsliders, and all manner of people on the outside. Continue reading →

Nearsighted

Posted on by
Reply

“Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.” It is one thing to carry a cross that is your own, but this cross thrust upon him unjustly. It the cross of someone else’s making. Why would he or she carry it, have to carry it, or even willingly carry it?

In 1982 Thomas Webb III moved from Chicago to Norman, Oklahoma. As best he could see, it seemed like a reasonable move. There wasn’t a lot happening for him in Chicago and a friend said there was opportunity and fun in and around the University of Oklahoma campus.  Why not? In 1983 he was convicted of rape, burglary, and other crimes and sentenced to 60 years in prison. He always maintained his innocence but he had been picked out of lineup on two separate occasions. The victim was unshakeable in her identification. Continue reading →

Some thoughts on humility

Posted on by
Reply

“For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” I suspect a lot of people hear that verse and, in part, think, “Yup, those arrogant, prideful and presumptuous people will be put in their place and get what’s coming to them.” But that doesn’t tell us what true humility is. Merriam Webster defines humility as freedom from pride or arrogance. That seems a little thin; it tells us what humility is not and by implication tells us what not to do in life…but… Continue reading →

Temperature in the room

Posted on by
Reply

“I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing!” Those are Jesus’ words from the gospel but it is not hard to imagine those same words coming from the prophet Jeremiah. He had begun his public ministry during the heyday of the religious reforms of the good King Josiah. It was the best of times. The people were being taught the Word of God and right worship – and Jeremiah was on the vanguard of the reforms. Then King Josiah died in battle and everything changed. Continue reading →

A good life, a good ending

Posted on by
1

The story of Abraham and Sarah is a story that should begin, “Against all odds….”  It is a pretty amazing story of perseverance, endurance, and life lived for a mission greater than one’s self. Abraham and Sarah persevered and endured the long journey from modern-day Iraq to Israel on to Egypt and back to Israel. Even as they reached their older years, they continued to hope for a child of their own. They believed in the Lord’s promises even when his timeline was a whole longer than their timelines. They bore the hopes and expectations of all the people they led. Certainly, they lived out St. Paul’s message from 1 Cor 13:7 “[Love] bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.” Continue reading →

Your Kingdom Come

Posted on by
Reply

“Suppose one of you has a friend…”  Maybe it is a family member, a close friend, someone you know, an associate at work, a friend of a friend – whatever the spectrum of how one thinks of friends. This person comes to you with a request. Maybe it’s easy – “can I borrow a cup of sugar?”  Easily asked, easily answered and only takes a spot of time. Continue reading →

Stretching Imaginations

Posted on by
2

Let me confess to you: I have never much liked the story of Martha and Mary. Maybe it is because there is a part of me that likes “to do,” to see measurable progress, and know we are moving ahead. Don’t get me wrong, I treasure my quiet time, but… Most of my life I have heard that the point of this story was that Mary’s attention to Jesus’ teaching is better and more important than what Martha is doing – the work of hospitality. The women in Kenya heard it that way and it rubbed them the wrong way. They quickly pointed out the biblical importance of their work: “Do not neglect hospitality, for through it some have unknowingly entertained angels.” (Hebrews 13:2) They also could have just stayed here in the Gospel of Luke where hospitality is evangelical. In the end, these women felt that the story undervalues or dismissed their efforts to be welcoming, hospitable and to serve. Continue reading →

Seeing

Posted on by
Reply

“Go and do likewise.” This seems like a pretty clear command from Jesus. Go about your day and life, showing mercy, being a merciful person. As Moses says in the first reading this command is not mysterious, hidden, something remote and inaccessible. Just do it! ….So… are you a merciful person? Yes? No? Sometimes? Hopefully we at least reach the “sometimes” rating. Jesus’ dialogue with the scholar, in a way, held up a new standard for him to follow: the 10 commandments are great – follow them – but, as St. Paul says, without love, without mercy, those commandments are just clanging gongs and clashing symbols. Just noise. Continue reading →

The Mantle

Posted on by
Reply

These days there is no shortage of devices to take photographs and videos. We have albums upon albums of memories: a newborn, the baptism, the first bicycle ride without training wheels, pictures of the school years, dropping that young adult at college, the wedding, and the pictures of the newborn. We record the person growing into an independent life. It is a visual record of a mantle being passed on as the child takes on the mantle of an adult. Continue reading →