The grace to persevere

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Several years ago, the Mars Chocolate North America company wanted to rejuvenate their product line of candy bars. Their creative partner, the global firm BBDO, helped them to launch a national campaign with the basic message: “you are not you when you’re hungry.” The television advertisements were wildly popular with stars such as Betty White and Aretha Franklin appearing in them. In all the tv spots the person just wasn’t themselves until a concerned fried offered them a candy bar. The Aretha Franklin spot always cracked me up. On a long cross-country drive one of the backseat passengers is complaining about everything – and while doing so appears to be Ms. Franklin. The backseat companion encourages the complainer to eat a candy bar because “When you’re hungry you turn into a diva.”  Continue reading →

The Affliction of Time

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There is a certain rhythm in each day in our lives. Weekdays, Saturdays, Sundays, vacation days and all the other categories of days. Each has its own rhythm. No matter what your state and role in life, your time is rarely your own. There are demands upon you time and attention that are unrelenting, recurring, and unavoidable – even as they are welcomed and cherished.. It can be a rhythm that sets the current and flow upon which you navigate the day like an Olympic kayaker on rapids of the slalom course. It can be a tyrant that can drive you to want to strike back at Time. On the afternoon of February 15, 1894, a French anarchist, Martial Bourdin, carried a homemade bomb in what was thought to be an attempt to blow up the Greenwich Royal Observatory which just 10 years earlier had been established as the global time standard — Greenwich Mean Time. Was it a symbolic revolutionary act to disrupt the tyranny of time? In any case, he wasn’t the only one to attack clocks during this period: In Paris, rebels simultaneously destroyed public clocks across the city, and in Bombay, protestors shattered the famous Crawford Market clock with gunfire. Continue reading →

Comes Down from Heaven

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This coming Sunday is the 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time. 32 So Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave the bread from heaven; my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” 34 So they said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.” 35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst. Continue reading →

Jeremiah’s Message

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The last of the righteous and faithful kings of Israel, Josiah, died in 609 BC. He was a reforming king who relentlessly called the people of Judah to return to the Lord, be faithful to the covenant, and live righteous lives. Jeremiah was a prophet who echoed Josiah’s message with fiery language

All week the first reading has been from the section of Jeremiah that could be called the chapters of “Idolatry, Injustice, and the Coming Judgment.” Today’s message is no different with the warning that the fate that awaits Jerusalem and its Temple is the same fate suffered by the city of Shiloh (Jer 26:4-6). What was the fate of Shiloh? Continue reading →

Jeremiah’s Message of Hope

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Yesterday’s post was well subtitled: Idolatry, Injustice, and the Coming Judgment. Our exploration of Jeremiah 7 gives you an idea of the essence of the prophet’s message of accusation and warning. It gives a nice summary of  all of the main themes in Jeremiah 1-24: Judah and Jerusalem are full of idolatrous Israelites who neglect the poor and vulnerable and engage in treacherous politics. Judgment is coming. Continue reading →

For What Are You Working?

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This coming Sunday is the 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time.  27 Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him the Father, God, has set his seal.” 28 So they said to him, “What can we do to accomplish the works of God?” 29 Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in the one he sent.” Continue reading →

Jeremiah’s Temple Sermon

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To understand the book of Jeremiah and his message of judgment against Judah, there is no better place to go than Jeremiah’s famous temple sermon in chapter 7. If you wanted a subtitle to this post it would be: “Idolatry, Injustice, and the Coming Judgment.” As Tim Mackie of BibleProject (the original source of these insights) notes, this passage is like a one-stop shopping center for all things “Jeremiah and judgment,” so understanding what’s happening here will help you better grasp what’s going on in the rest of the book. But (spoiler alert!), this isn’t a “feel-good” kind of sermon. Rather, Jeremiah is sent into the temple courts to accuse God’s people of their false religion and idolatrous practices. Continue reading →

Why Are You Looking?

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This coming Sunday is the 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time. 24 When the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they themselves got into boats and came to Capernaum looking for Jesus. 25 And when they found him across the sea they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?” 26 Jesus answered them and said, “Amen, amen, I say to you, you are looking for me not because you saw signs but because you ate the loaves and were filled. Continue reading →