Monday, March 26, 2018 | Reflections
The days say to us: Enter. Come experience. Come live. Come savor. These days are ours to know. Ours to enter. Ours to walk. Ours to pray. Ours to love. This Holy Week calls each of us. For 40 days we’ve waited and watched. We’ve turned to the...
Monday, March 26, 2018 | Reflections
Indeed, the powers of darkness are conspiring. The ruling council in Jerusalem is not satisfied with Jesus’ answers, and they bring him to Pilate. Pilate sends Jesus to Herod. Herod sends Jesus back to Pilate, who then asks the crowd to decide Jesus’ fate. As is...
Sunday, March 25, 2018 | Reflections
We are in it now, the last race, the last heartbreaking mile. Yesterday we walked with our Lord as he entered Jerusalem’s Eastern Gate astride a colt, like a king, the ground strewn with cloaks and branches. He rides a donkey, not a warhorse. A sign of peace? Of...
Sunday, March 25, 2018 | Reflections
My sons are deprived—or so they joke—because I never allowed them to see the movie Bambi. Probably because I lost my mother at an early age, I hate the part about the mother deer being killed and leaving Bambi an orphan. “Go read Dostoyevsky or Joyce,” I would say....
Saturday, March 24, 2018 | Reflections
Mark 11:1-11 Jesus come to re-create the world, not to be the boss of it. Jesus shows his political genius in this morning’s gospel reading. As Pilate enters Jerusalem from the west, resplendent in his full regalia, Jesus will enter from the east, on a donkey:...
Saturday, March 24, 2018 | Reflections
Jesus is facing his greatest trial—ending in his death—and the disciples cannot seem to stay awake. Judas has betrayed him for thirty pieces of silver. And Peter will soon deny Jesus as well. In Gethsemane, Jesus’ teachings, some of which have seemed harsh, begin...
Friday, March 23, 2018 | Reflections
It was a peaceful day in an area known for strife and murder. Inside the convent chapel, the priest elevated the host in the great moment of the mass. Suddenly a shot rang out and the priest slumped to the floor. The assassins quietly left the chapel and drove off,...
Friday, March 23, 2018 | Reflections
I am writing this week from my parent’s house on the Oregon Coast. I’ve been down helping my Dad care for my Mom for the past two weeks. This week she entered hospice care. Uncertainty is all around me. I am wondering if I am feeling like the disciples...
Friday, March 23, 2018 | Reflections
Despite dozens of biblical references to Satan, many of us tend to push the idea of him aside like an embarrassing relative. We don’t say his name and cringe when others speak of him. Yet every time we baptize someone, we ask: “Do you renounce Satan and all the...
Thursday, March 22, 2018 | Reflections
Mark 10:17-31 Over the years my intimacy with God has grown by fits and starts. There were periods when I didn’t pray at all. At other times I drifted in and out, engaging with God for several days or weeks at a time, then forgetting. But happily I have...
Thursday, March 22, 2018 | Reflections
Luke 21 is one of the most difficult chapters in the New Testament to assimilate and hear. These are the days of vengeance, Jesus says. Some of you will need to flee, and others of you will die. Jesus is not pulling any punches. Some scholars cast these verses as...
Wednesday, March 21, 2018 | Reflections
Traditional interpretation of this conversation is straightforward. Part of being a good Christian is supporting local government—i.e. paying taxes. Paul writes about this at length in Romans 13:6-7: “For the same reason you also pay taxes, for the authorities are...
Tuesday, March 20, 2018 | Reflections
Almighty God, you alone can bring order to the unruly wills and affections of sinners: Grant your people grace to love what you command and desire what you promise; that, among the swift and varied changes of the world, our hearts may surely there be fixed where true...
Tuesday, March 20, 2018 | Reflections
About six months ago, I started going to a YMCA yoga class—and it still exhausts me. “We’re going to work on balance today,” says the instructor. “Find the four points of balance in your left foot. Then slowly raise the right foot.” “Trust the ground to...
Monday, March 19, 2018 | Reflections
The music draws me in. As I walk up the steps I hear the music playing. The music welcoming me with its melody. The sounds reminding me of churches past and the organ music that kept playing. The music that always keeps singing. I give thanks for the hymns of...
