Mark 8:27-38 As of this writing, I’m not exactly sure where my preaching will take me next week-end. As a result, I am simply offering several starting places. Maybe one of these will work for you as well. It’s September and the Chicago Cubs are still in the race. OK, it’s just the wild card …
A Young Man Named Pablo and the Syrophoenician Woman
Mark 7:24-37 A few days ago I got a window into the utter courage the woman in the story before us now displayed. For I surely saw its opposite. Not that I’m judging that, believe me, I am not. Here is how it was. I spent the last week on a cruise with some of …
On Hand Washing, Shells, and Our Oh So Human Traditions
Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23 This is true. I never thought much about what was behind the Jewish tradition of hand washing before today. I have always simply jumped to what appears to be Jesus’ main point and skimmed over the roots of the tradition which is at the center of this week’s controversy. And yet, …
Do I Choose or Am I Chosen?
Joshua 24:1-2a, 14-18John 6:56-69 “Choose this day whom you will serve…” — Joshua (Joshua 24:15) “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life” — Simon Peter (John 6:68) “Did I …
Some (Not So) Random Thoughts on Bread
John 6:51-58 Every time I travel to Minneapolis, I do all I can to make time to drop in at my favorite used bookstore. Last week, like every other time, I managed to walk out of there with a number of books I just couldn’t do without. This time my haul included a little book …
God is Not Done
1 Kings 19:4-8 John 6:35, 41-51 Poor Elijah is surely in a bad place today. We know this to be so because he says so. We also know this is so because of things he has done just prior to our encounter with him at this point in the narrative. Just before this, he has …
This Food That Perishes…
John 6:24-35 These days my Friday mornings are pretty much the same. I start the laundry. I get bread rising. And I clean spoiled food out of the refrigerator. Because food — or at least most any food you would want to eat — perishes. But, of course, it is not only the food we …
Jesus and the Feeding of the 5,000 and a Man Named Karl
John 6:1-21 To tell you the truth, I completely understand Philip’s response in this week’s story of the feeding of the crowd of 5000. It is a mountain of hunger standing before him, after all. And it’s not as though any one of Jesus’ close followers had with them the resources to begin to touch …
Jesus: Our Peace
Ephesians 2:11-22 I certainly can’t remember a time when differences didn’t divide. In fact, this truth has come to mind in a particular way this past week-end as I have watched my beloved Chicago Cubs fall once more to the Chicago White Sox. Fans from both teams may look alike, may work or worship or …
A Meal to Remember
Mark 6:14-29 Is there anyone out there who finds this week’s Gospel reading in any way life-giving? Truth be told, this week I thought hard about honing in on the prophet’s words about plumb lines and Amos’s call in Amos (Amos 7:7-15) or about our inheritance as God’s adopted children in Ephesians (Ephesians 1:3-14) instead. …