Category Archives: Sunday Morning

Discipleship and Dialogue

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Jesus-who-is-this“When the sabbath came he began to teach in the synagogue.” It is short verse, but one that I have admits tickles my imagination. I wonder what Jesus said? I suspect whatever Jesus had to say it was brimming with passion about the Kingdom of God, the Love of God, and the fulfillment of the promises of God in the covenants made with the ancestors. Maybe there were more specific comments and points – some no doubt controversial. Perhaps Jesus spoke about how God’s desire that all be saved was not limited to just Israel, but was available to all the world, even the hated Roman conquerors. That would have raised a few eyebrows and stated a few whispers. It might have been any one of a number of parables that would have challenged people in the core beliefs. The one we call the Parable of the Good Samaritan would have been shocking; to the Nazareth crowd there was nothing good about a Samaritan. “When the sabbath came he began to teach in the synagogue.” I don’t think the people came that day expected to be riled up. Continue reading →

Grace and welcoming

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Mark-5-two-miraclesDo you ever get stuck on an image, a word, a moment in time, and continue to return to it – take it into prayer, reflection, and consideration? Sometimes it is a haunting thought – why didn’t I understand, why didn’t I say something, why couldn’t I have helped. Sometimes it is a instinct to find deeper understanding. It can be lots of things. I find that I return to the events of June 17th when good, grace-filled people died at Emmanuel AME Church in Charleston. It was an evening when grace and welcome abounded. Imagine being there at the Bible Study when someone, who looked completely different from you – perhaps triggering their instincts of danger – walks in and joins the study of God’s word. It would have been one thing for Dylan Roof to walk in guns blazing and be done with the terrible deed – but he was welcomed without condition or reservation, sat down, received their peace, and then an hour later unleashed his misguided hate, taking nine lives. Continue reading →

Love and the Sacred Heart

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Sacred-Heart-JesusToday we celebrate the patronal feast of our parish, the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. Simply put, what we celebrate is the love of God symbolized by the heart of Jesus. You can read more about the devotion and solemnity by following the link on the front page of our parish website.

Think about it…if we are celebrating the love of God – and especially symbolized by the heart of Jesus – we are celebrating God’s love for us; a pretty awesome thing to contemplate. Of course, your contemplation will be shaped by what you already think of love. You know… in English we can say “I love you” and… not a lot more without adding modifiers or descriptors. For example, “I really, really love you” – which sounds more like trying to convince someone than an intimate moment. “I like you” or “I am fond of you” does not carry the same gravitas or conviction. Love and the English language is road that does carry you too far. Kiswahili is a different road with lots of choices. There are as many as 21 different verbs for love. In addition to the love a parent has for a child (different that which a child has for the parent) and such other familial loves, Kiswahili acknowledges that the love shared by newlyweds is different from the love shared between a couple who forged their love in the cauldron of marriage over a 50 year different. Continue reading →

Seeing with wonderment

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wondermentI think my favorite comic strip of all time is “Calvin and Hobbes.” It was a simple comic strip featuring Calvin, a preternaturally bright six year-old, and Hobbes, his imaginary tiger friend. The comic strip managed to infuse wondering (and wandering) on a cosmic scale into an ageless world of lazy Sunday afternoons, space adventures, and tales of befuddled babysitters, teachers, and parents. What I most enjoyed about Calvin and Hobbes was that it reminded me of our innate human ability to be surprised, to imagine, and enter into mystery – and to do it with an amazing, incredibly open wonderment. Calvin’s openness to the mystery of it all allowed him entry to even the theological arts where he mused about the combination of predestination with procrastination, finally concluding, “God put me on this earth to accomplish a certain number of things. Right now I am so far behind that I will never die.” Continue reading →

A sea change

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USNA-graduationWe are firmly in the midst of high school and college graduation season. Every institution has their own traditions and ways to celebrate – including my alma mater, the United States Naval Academy. Every May, the seniors march on to the field at Navy-Marine Corps Stadium for graduation. The women and men are dressed in their “choker” whites (future Naval Officers) and blues (future Marine Corp officers). Theses graduating midshipmen take their places, listen to the speakers of the day, walk across the stage to receive their diploma, take the oath of office, and then it happens… Continue reading →

When it is revealed

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ssn685-300I spent last weekend away. I joined several of my US Naval Academy classmates for a weekend in Ormond Beach at one of their homes. And as it is always likely to happen, when we get together, there were lots of sea stories. Daring tales of iron men and wooden ships braving the deep waters – and some of the stories were even true. It was also interesting hearing all the details of my friend’s assignments and their encountering other classmates in those assignments. Several of the men at the gathering had made careers of the Navy; several of us had not. Continue reading →

Who could love us?

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I AM the Good Shepherd3[Note: I am away on vacation! I though I would repost this – it seemed to fit the readings for today] 

I suspect that most of us here share a fundamental experience with sheep. First we confuse lambs and sheep. Most of us think about lambs who seem wonderfully cute, are gentle of spirit, and how can you not love them? I mean, really. And our experience is mostly limited to the petting zoo/farm context. I suspect that as children we turned to our moms and said: “Mom can we have one? I promise to feed him and take care of him….. please…!!”

I assume most of us here share another attribute – we are all city slickers, urban folk, and suburbanites. Which are all good things… but does not necessarily give us great insight into the lives of sheep or shepherds. Continue reading →

An incomplete ending

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resurrection-of-christ-iconThis year in the cycle of liturgical years we are primarily using the Gospel of Mark for our Sunday readings. But then this particular Gospel is the shortest of the four canonical texts and so it requires “a little help” to fill in the whole of the year – especially during the long stretch of Ordinary Time between Pentecost and Advent. This year, as per normal for Year B in the cycle of readings, the 17th through the 20th Sundays or Ordinary Time is from the Gospel of John. Continue reading →