Matthew 21:33-46 I cleaned out my garden last week. As usual, I started out ambitious and hopeful in the spring, only this year? It seems that neglect rather ruled the season. My four tomato plants did not produce nearly as much as they normally do, although they grew into al most tree-like structures which looked …
This Absurd Parable: The Forgiven, Unforgiving One
Matthew 18:21-35 And it is, of course, totally absurd. Indeed, I went down a rabbit hole this week, trying to figure out exactly how much ten thousand talents was, at least in relation to 100 denarii. It turns out there are a number of ways to make the comparison. For instance, it seems it would …
Waking From Sleep … Three Years Later
Romans 13:8-14 It is fascinating now to look back on where my heart was three years ago at just this time. I would invite you to look back at your own ‘time capsules’: in journal entries or old sermons. In some ways it seems so distant. In other ways like yesterday. We were then still …
Cross-Bearing: From Death to Life
Matthew16:21-28 I was leaving the hospital on Friday afternoon. As I walked through the lobby, a long time acquaintance stopped me and told me to be careful out there. “I always am,” I replied, not realizing that her words of caution were more than a general farewell. It seemed that there had been some kind …
Foundations: Peter’s Confession, Jesus’ Commission
Matthew 16:13-20 I stood at the bedside a few days ago as one of our beloved was lowered into a body bag. He had died an hour or more before and so quickly his face, his limbs, showed the obvious signs that whatever had held ‘life’ even moments before, even with staggered breathing, was no …
Love is as Strong as Death… Jesus and the Canaanite Mother
Matthew 15:21-28 The passage from Song of Songs comes to mind for me this week: Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm; for love is strong as death, passion fierce as the grave. Its flashes are flashes of fire, a raging flame. …
Jesus Ordered the Crowds to Sit Down…
Isaiah 55:1-5 Matthew 14:13-21 It’s hard to know what there is new to say about this story which shows up in all four Gospels: a story which you and many of those who gather likely know by heart. It takes little to recall the energy of the massive crowd, the disciples’ frustration, the apparently meager …
God’s Unexpected Abundance
Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52 It seems to me that the stories Jesus tells today are offered to open up our hearts’ imaginations to see God at work in the world in unexpected and always abundant ways. Jesus does so by speaking of ordinary things: Like a tiny seed which grows into something tall and sturdy which …
Wheat and Weeds: Side by Side
Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43 If you are a child of the Midwest of a certain generation, you may have held a summer job like I did. This is how it was. When I was in high school for a couple of weeks of a couple of summers at just about this time of year, my sister …
The Extravagant Sower
Isaiah 55:10-13 Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23 “So shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and succeed in the thing for which I sent it…” Isaiah 55:11 “Listen! A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed… Other …