Today’s Gospel delivers a different sort of Jesus than the kind and gentle Jesus we hear about in Sunday School or the fun Jesus who makes 180 gallons of vintage wine for a wedding that’s already run out of Two Buck Chuck. This Jesus is flush with anger. Veins sticking out of His…
We hate to lose. From the earliest times on the playground or the soccer field, we absolutely hate to lose. We hate to associate with losers. If we’re on a losing team, we want to be traded; if you’re a loser on a winning team, they want to trade you. The…
Mark gives the temptation of Jesus only a few short sentences in his version of the Gospel: The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. And he was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered to him.
It goes…
Lent is a curious season. 40 days of purple. Somber and serious. Sackcloth and ashes. Prayer and penitence. It seems so out of place in our culture of consumption and comfort. Contrition cuts against the grain of self-esteem and our expectations that every day will be sunny and happy.…
Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.
What does this mean? We pray in this petition that our Father in heaven would not look at our sins, or deny our prayer because of them. We are neither worthy of the things for which we pray, nor have we…
Today the Church enters the forty-day season of Lent. Lent is a time of repentance, reflection, and renewal in preparation for the three holy days of Easter and for the seven weeks of the Easter season. It is a time in which we are called to subdue whatever gets in the way of…
Jesus said to His disciples, “Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see that the kingdom of God has come with power.”
Then He let those words hang in the air for a week. No one dared ask Him about it. Six…
The crowd was huge, filling the little house to overflowing. Jesus was in town. The people flocked to hear him. All kinds of people - the curious, the devout, the skeptical, the religious. They were all there, packed into a little house, spilling out onto the street. And Jesus did…
To eat and to drink with God is the highest form of fellowship that we can have. Table fellowship with God is the ultimate fellowship. It is to come into His presence with thanksgiving, to be welcomed at His table, to eat His food and drink His wine, to be guests in His…
If Holy Baptism is our daily garment, the clothing we wear on our journey from the Red Sea of Baptism to the promised land of the Resurrection, then the Lord’s Supper our daily food. The new life that is born in Baptism, that is bathed daily in the Word of forgiveness, is also nourished…