Quasimodo Geniti 2026

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In today’s Gospel, Jesus tells the Apostles to go and tell people about His resurrection and forgiveness. You have something similar at the end of Matthew, where Jesus tells the Apostles to go and make disciples by baptizing and teaching. These are all works of the Holy Spirit. The call for the apostles to go and absolve is preceded by Jesus giving them the Spirit. In Acts 2, when the people are brought to contrition for their sins, Peter announces to them the gift of Baptism, which bestows forgiveness and the Holy Spirit. He even says it is for the children along with their parents. Jesus established means to deliver to us His gifts.

Remember a couple of weeks ago, we saw that the New Testament never calls pastors “priests.” We have other words like bishops, presbyters, pastors, rulers, teachers, and deacons – but never priests. That’s because Jesus is the last and final priest. He is the one mediator between God and man….

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The Resurrection of Our Lord: Easter Sunday 2026

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My only experience with caissons is in the logistics of death. I’ve walked behind caissons at Arlington Cemetery, as the body rolls to its resting place. These committals have taps, and guns, and an officer with a folded flag. Other burials have just a few people, grieving alone while the madding crowd continues its frenzy, oblivious to their doom.

It’s there, at the graveyard, where you really wonder what’s true….

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The Resurrection of Our Lord 2025

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On Friday, the weeping women heard His last words.

“It is finished,” Jesus said, and they believed Him. It’s all over.

You’ve heard those words. “We’re finished!”

What’s finished is over. Done. Dead.

“It is finished,” Jesus said. They believed Him.

The priests win. Rome wins. Death wins….

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Robert Kreinheder Funeral

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What impressed me immediately when I first met Bob were the books. Shelves and shelves of glorious books, and more piled nearby. Yet while Bob was a reader, he didn’t boast about what he’d read or what he knew. He asked questions.

He cared about this city. What it is supposed to do and be, what it represented, and who played baseball for it. Retired more than a decade by the time I met him, he and Hazel both had careers protecting the interests of our nation. He wouldn’t talk about it, despite my occasional prodding. He also didn’t like to talk about himself. But we should note he was a graduate with honors from Cornell, and that same year went to work for the NSA as a cryptologist and language analyst. He was humble; he loved and was proud of his family, and he cared about America, the shining city on the hill....

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Trinity 16, 2024

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We cannot say, “Mine is the true religion; yours isn’t true.” That’s what the bishop of Rome, Pope Francis, said on Friday. He continued,

All religions are a path to reach God. They are, to use a comparison, like different languages, different dialects to get there…. There is only one God, and we, our religions are languages, paths to reach God. Some Sikh, some Muslim, some Hindu, some Christian, but they are different paths.

To assert one’s religion is true, the Pope said, this leads to destruction. With these words, the pope places himself outside the Christian faith. It’s a tragedy that goes back nearly a thousand years. The claims of the bishop of Rome split the church in two in 1054, and Rome’s continued false teachings led to the fragmentation of Christianity in the West in the sixteenth century. This is a tragedy, and we must long for unity. But we cannot allow false teaching about salvation. That is not loving. Truth matters. The Word of God matters. The Gospel matters. ...

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The Resurrection of Our Lord 2024

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“Your boasting is not good.” So opens today’s Epistle. Boasting—or pride—is the fundamental human problem. So we must be told, even on Easter, “Your boasting is not good.” The broader context is a scandal in the Corinthian church. But the problem of pride, of boasting, is universal….

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Trinity 16, 2023

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In the Bill & Hillary Clinton Airpot in Little Rock, Arkansas, a large sign advertises a local church, with the slogan Expect an Experience. That captures perfectly the American religion: Emotivism. Faith means experiencing happiness. Big Evangelicalism equates faith with success, prosperity, health. If you lead a good life, good things will come to you. One slogan puts it this way: “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.” The first part is true. But God’s plan for the disciples of Jesus might not be what the world calls “wonderful.” Bonhoeffer’s famous saying is more accurate: “When God calls a man, He bids him come and die.” Faith will not eliminate tribulations in your life. Afflictions come to the faithful to strengthen their faith further. Whom the Lord loves, He chastens….

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The Resurrection of Our Lord 2022

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The T in LGBTQIA+ has overwhelmed all the other letters. The T, of course, is for transgender. Transgenderism rejects biological reality, the givenness of creation. There is also another T, another trans, that is somewhat less known: Transhumanism. Transhumanism, at the risk of oversimplifying, proposes joining technology to humans for the purpose of enhancing and lengthening life. For many, this includes a goal of achieving immortality.

Both of these contemporary trans movements seek to address real human problems: dysphoria, discomfort, disability, dissolution, death. There is something wrong with us. There is something wrong with the world. A trans movement seeks to change the problem. That’s what trans means: change. It can also mean cross, like to cross a barrier or a distance. Hence, transportation. Or, transformation.

These contemporary trans movements, like others that have come before (such as Transcendentalism), are all doomed to fail, because they have the wrong starting point….

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