Tuesday, May 29, 2018 | Reflections
With long, hot days, and endless, starry nights. With popsicles, fresh fruit, and fireflies. With sprinklers, days at the pool, and cool breezes on the front porch. Summer has arrived. The days stretch out. The season feels different. More relaxed. More open. More...
Monday, May 28, 2018 | Reflections
Two of the three parables in this portion of Matthew involve people selling everything they have and investing the revenue into something else—a field, with a secret treasure hidden in it, and a single pearl, the true value of which may not be clear to the seller....
Monday, May 28, 2018 | Reflections
That We May Be Wholly Yours Almighty and eternal God, so draw our hearts to you, so guide our minds, so fill our imaginations, so control our wills, that we may be wholly yours, utterly dedicated to you; and then use us, we pray, as you will, and always to your glory...
Monday, May 28, 2018 | Reflections
The post Keeping the Sabbath appeared first on d365 Daily Devotionals. This post appeared here first: Keeping the Sabbath [D365 Daily Devotions]
Sunday, May 27, 2018 | Reflections
John 3:1-17 Trinity Sunday And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. At the top of Mt. Nebo, just northwest of Madaba in the Hashemite Kingdom of...
Sunday, May 27, 2018 | Reflections
Today is Trinity Sunday. We celebrate the Trinity, a doctrine describing the way one God-essence is depicted and experienced as three persons (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) over the course of salvation history. Abstract enough for you? Years ago, I came across an idea...
Saturday, May 26, 2018 | Reflections
The final judgment is for real. Jesus makes no bones about this fact and eventuality. But the good news is that this harvest is God-led, and we Christians can finally get out of the judging business. Phew. We are the ones who will be judged, after all. Jesus never...
Saturday, May 26, 2018 | Reflections
It’s been a whole week since the royal wedding, and interest in the event still seems to be fairly high. All the secrets are now revealed: the bride’s dress was exquisite, her veil was perfect with the dress and also a nod to her new role as part of the...
Friday, May 25, 2018 | Reflections
Daily Office Readings for the feast day of Bede, the Venerable, 2018: Psalm 78:1-4 Wisdom 7:15-22 1 Corinthians 15:1-8 Matthew 13:47-52 In our Gospel today, Jesus talks of the Kingdom of Heaven like being a net that caught fish of every kind. I think...
Friday, May 25, 2018 | Reflections
So many of Jesus’ parables are about small things—grains of salt, coins, pearls, yeast, mustard seeds—that transform their environments in outsized, even unpredictable, ways. It is as if Jesus is urging us to practice paying special attention to small things that have...
Thursday, May 24, 2018 | Reflections
In this passage, we encounter the ambiguous image of weeds and wheat bound up with one another, the root systems inextricably intertwined. This is a perfect image for our ambiguous selves and world. The older I get, the less black and white things become. I’ve...
Thursday, May 24, 2018 | Reflections
At that time Jesus said, ‘I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. – Matthew 11:25-26 This passage has...
Wednesday, May 23, 2018 | Reflections
Psalm 8:4 When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars you have set in their courses, What are we that you should be mindful of us, mere mortals that you should seek us out? — from the St. Helena Psalter Today in the...
Wednesday, May 23, 2018 | Reflections
In Mexico, my closest friend calls me mi carnal, which literally translates to “my flesh.” Jesus seems to be saying that his real family—his flesh—isn’t his mother or brothers. Contrary to the saying that “blood is thicker than water,” Jesus says t….(View this...
Tuesday, May 22, 2018 | Reflections
Let’s consider the heart. Throughout Acts, we hear over and over that what matters to God isn’t circumcision of the flesh but rather of the heart. Throughout the Bible, we hear of people possessing hearts of stone, unmoved by compassion for others or the good news....
