There’s always a bit of a letdown after the holidays. The Bible stories that come after Christmas are no exception. From glad tidings of great joy, we move to King Herod plotting the murder of the infant Jesus. When he cannot ascertain which boy he is, Herod responds with horrific ruthlessness: “Kill them all.”
Read MoreAll the stuff we buy ends up eventually discarded. There’s no joy there. Our own bodies return to the dust. The things we think will make us happy are only temporary. But to be joined to the communion of Jesus and His Church – there is life, and light, and joy. Which is why John wants us to join not his church, but Christ’s Church. Being part of that one, holy, catholic and apostolic church is to enter into communion with the One who is Life. That’s our only path to joy. That’s why John, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, writes his Gospel and letters: “And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.”
Read MoreThe cultural revolution upheaving the Western world is intensely dogmatic. Each day a new dogma is decreed. Bake the cake, wear the mask, close your church, stay at home, check your privilege, shout your abortion, don't use those pronouns, gender is a social construct, the baby will be made comfortable as we abandon it to death. In the New Inquisition, expect no mercy. Fierce and unforgiving are the world’s dogmas.
Read MoreWhere will you go if there’s no room in the inn? What will you do if you lose your job? In the hour of death, to what will you cling?
Disasters upend priorities. The shipwrecked need a plank, something to keep them above water. In that moment, nothing else matters.
Christmas is for the shipwrecked.
Read MoreThe Washington Redskins announced recently that they’re changing their name. For this season, they’ll be known as the Washington Football Team, which is actually more creative than their style of play.
The name change comes amid the destruction of statues across the land. Stoking the fires of racial and religious division, Shaun King called for the destruction of statues and stained glass images of Jesus and His mother. These Christian symbols are “tools of oppression” and “racist propaganda.”
The fervor behind such iconoclasm is rooted in a new fundamentalism….
Read MoreAttempts at equality among people often fall far short. In Orwell’s Animal Farm, the Communist system is summed up in one of the “Seven Commandments”: “All are equal, but some are more equal than others.”
Men treat each other unequally. But the Word of God tells us that we are all equal in this respect: “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” We are all equally mortal. And we all stand before God as sinners.
But we prefer inequality. That’s what today’s Gospel reading reveals.
Read More“Why won’t there be food in heaven?” a student asked me recently. I reminded this thoughtful child that in the kingdom of God our bodies will be resurrected, and the Bible often talks about God’s kingdom as a feast. And then I asked, “What made you so sure there wouldn’t be food?”
“Because the Bible says we won’t hunger or thirst.” Ah! Yes, I see why you might think that. But you see, it’s not eating and drinking that’s the problem, but a world where people suffer.
Our world is infected with sin, and corrupted by death. So when the Bible says, “They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore,” it’s describing a world where people don’t starve, where people have clean water to drink….
Read More“He is good.” That confession of faith from the Psalms made its way into the Liturgy of Christ’s Supper: “Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good.” What if we isolate the words from the time of our prosperity? Can we still confess them? Is He good? Even when He takes away our good things?
Is He good when family is missing at Thanksgiving? Is He still good when your dreams become terrors in the night? Is He still good when your child is in pain?
Or have we made our judgment on God’s goodness dependent on the good we experience? …
Read MoreLouis Armstrong once said, “If you have to ask what jazz is, you’ll never know.” Peter’s question shows he doesn’t know what forgiveness is. Forgiveness doesn’t ask, “How many times do I forgive?” Love keeps no record of wrongs. Jesus explains this by means of a parable – a parable about a debt.
The national debt of the United States is currently about $22.7 trillion - up $17 trillion since 2000. Maybe it’s just me, but that seems like a lot of money. I don’t understand how it happened. I’ve never studied economics, but I wonder how we’ll ever pay it off.
The guy in today’s parable was probably wondering the same thing. He owes 10,000 talents. One talent equals 6,000 denarii. A denarius was about a day’s wage. So to get an idea of what this man owes, imagine your annual salary. Let’s call that about 310 denarii. If you worked for 19 years and saved everything you earned, you’d have about 6,000 denarii – or one talent. That means you’d need to work for 190,000 years to get to the amount of this man’s debt. It’s simply not possible. This isn’t the debt of a man, but a nation. How will he ever pay it off? …
Read MoreHoward Jones sang, “No one is to blame,” but the Eighties were a long time ago. In 2019, someone must be blamed. Political anger has replaced religion as the culture’s driving animus. Someone is to blame, and the mob won’t stop until the scapegoat is called out and cancelled.
Today’s Epistle shows us that people are not our problem. I don’t agree with Marianne Williamson on much, but she’s right about one thing: We have spiritual forces of evil arrayed against us. “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” Against this enemy, no earthly defenses will avail. The Satan has this aim: to turn you away from the God who loves you; to drive a wedge between creature and Creator...
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