John 15:9-17 / Easter 6B / 13 May 2012 / Holy Trinity - Hacienda Heights, CA
You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide. - John 15:9-17
Today’s reading from John continues Jesus’ “I am the vine, you are the branches” saying. Joined to Jesus, you are a fruitful branch; apart from Jesus you can do nothing. The “fruit” which Jesus is speaking of is “love.”
Follow the flow. From the Father to the Son to you. As the Father loves the Son, so the Son loves you. And now the invitation: Abide in my love. Stay there. Rest there. Dwell there. Hang in there. Be loved by Jesus as Jesus is loved by the Father. This is where “love” begins - not in our hearts, not in our decisions and choices, not in our initiative. It begins in the heart of the Father and His love for the beloved Son. It flows to you from the Son by way the cross, the font, the altar, His Word.
John 15:1-8 / Easter 5B / 6 May 2012 / Holy Trinity - Hacienda Heights, CA
Jesus the Vine, you the branches, the Father the vinedresser. That is today’s picture of your union with Christ through faith from the Gospel according to St. John. Joined to Jesus in faith you are alive and fruitful, as living branches joined to a living vine. Apart from Jesus, you are dead and fruitless.
John 10:11-15 / Easter 4B / 29 April 2012 / Holy Trinity - Hacienda Heights, CA
“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.”
Of all the images of Jesus, of all the ways that Jesus Himself pictures who He is and what He does in those seven “I AM” sayings in John, of which this is one, none is more comforting, more gentle, more intimate that “good shepherd.” Without a doubt, it is kindest and gentlest picture of Jesus that we have. The good shepherd to cares for His sheep, who leads them to fresh, still water, who restores their souls, who leads them in the pathways of righteousness, who goes ahead of them through the dark valley of death, who anoints their heads with sooting oil, who prepares a lavish table even as the wolves look on, who goodness and mercy follow them all their days. And in the end, the sheep of the good shepherd can say with confidence, “I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”
Luke 24:36049 / Easter 3B / 22 April 2012 / Holy Trinity - Hacienda Heights, CA
Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them: “Thus it is written: That the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins be preached in His name to all nations.” (Luke 24:47)
So here we are on the third Sunday of Easter and the news still seems hard to believe, doesn’t it? Christ is risen, we say, and yet somewhere in the more rational recesses of our minds there is this little flicker of doubt that goes, “really?” How can you know for sure? Beyond a reasonable doubt, at least, or to some reasonable certainty?
John 20:19-31 / Easter 2B / 15 April 2012 / Holy Trinity - Hacienda Heights, CA
Have you ever been afraid to go outside? So afraid that you find yourself hiding behind locked doors with the shades pulled and curtains drawn? So afraid you want to hide? Don’t take phone calls. Don’t answer the door. Don’t engage the world.
One of the most remarkable reactions to the resurrection of Jesus is fear. In Mark, the women who went to the tomb early that Sunday morning and heard the news of the resurrection from the angel ran away in fear and told no one. In John, the disciples are hiding in the upper room, probably the same upper room where four days before Jesus had told them not to fear. The doors were locked tight. The disciples were cowering together in fear.
1 Corinthians 15 / Easter Sunday / 08 April 2012 / Holy Trinity - Hacienda Heights, CA
Christ is risen! Alleluia!
He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
The resurrection of Jesus is both a matter of fact and a matter of faith.
Mark 15:1-47 / Passion Sunday B / 1 April 2012 / Holy Trinity - Hacienda Heights, CA
Palms and Passion. They hardly seem to go together. Palms are for victory and triumph. Passion means suffering and death. Shouts of Hosanna! and cries of Crucify! They don’t fit. Welcome to the beginning of Holy Week, a week of contradictions and paradoxes that end with a death and a burial.
Mark 10:35-45 / Lent 5B / 25 March 2012 / Holy Trinity - Hacienda Heights, CA
“See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles. And they will mock him and spit on him, and flog him and kill him. And after three days he will rise.”
This is what Jesus said to His disciples on the road to Jerusalem just prior to our Gospel reading this morning. Jesus predicted His death and resurrection, and James and John start angling over who is going to get the honored seats at the heavenly banquet. “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.” Imagine that!
John 3:14-21 / Lent 4B / 18 March 2012 / Holy Trinity - Hacienda Heights, CA
“How do I love thee, let me count the ways.” When it is the Father talking to His world, you need only count to one. His only-begotten Son. The Father loves the world in His beloved Son. This is the exclusively inclusive love of the Father. God is love. He can’t stop Himself. That’s what He is. Love isn’t simply something God does; it’s also something God is. Love is His very essence. God is love and God loves. The Father loves the Son, and He loves the world in His beloved Son. And He loves you in the same way.
John 2:13:25 / Lent 3B / 11 March 2012 / Holy Trinity - Hacienda Heights, CA
In the Gospel of John, everything tends to mean at least two things. John is chock full of double entendres, double meanings all over the place. Today’s Gospel is a prime example: the temple and Jesus’ body.
John pushes this episode from Holy Week right up to the front. That’s how important it is for John. This episode of Jesus’ clearing the temple of the money changers and sacrifice sellers sets the tone for the entire Gospel. It comes immediately after the inaugural sign of Jesus’ changing washing water into wedding wine at a feast at Cana.