Matthew 22:15-22 Oh, I surely do wish today that Jesus would have made it easier on us than he does now. For while his reply to the Herodians and the Pharisees walked an important and tenuous line, it leaves us with the responsibility of wrestling this question through our whole lives long. Now understand, please, …
Tag: Matthew
This Exile: Then and Now
Isaiah 25:1-9 I have been sitting with the words of the prophet Isaiah in these last days. And I have been wondering at how his words first heard by a broken, lost people must have sounded. I have been wondering what it means that he spoke to a people in exile. And, yes, I am …
God’s Own: This Vineyard
Matthew 21:33-46 I took the long way home a few days back. I drove the roads which were mine growing up, going past vast fields of corn and soybeans which have been part of my landscape my whole life long. I grew up with kids whose families owned these farms. Indeed, parts of more than …
“My Ninevah”
Jonah 3:10-4:11 Matthew 20:1-16 “And should I not be concerned about Ninevah, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also many animals?” (Jonah 4:11) As of now, I cannot think of a better last line of …
Stuck in the Middle of Lent: Joseph’s Brothers and the Forgiven, Unforgiving Slave
Genesis 50:15-21 Matthew 18:21-35 I walked into the robing room at First Lutheran Church the other day. I had not had much reason to spend time in there over the last six months. We have been taping services earlier in the week and what in person worship we have shared in has been outside. On …
Bearing Our Crosses and Bearing Witness to One Another…
Matthew 16:21-28 I’m afraid that I come to this today with more questions than answers. Indeed, it seems I have been grappling with these particular words of Jesus my whole life long — or at least since the first time I sat down with a Greek New Testament and word by word, phrase by phrase, …
“On This Rock…”
Matthew 16:13-20 “You are Peter. And on this rock I will build my church.” And the debate goes on, doesn’t it. What or who was Jesus pointing to when he uttered these words? Was it, in fact, Peter himself as some of our friends from different traditions have long understood or was it the the …
God’s Vision: So Much Larger Than Ours!
Matthew 15:20-28 I find myself looking back now on other times when I have grappled with the very difficult words before us now. You are welcome to do the same. I imagine you will also discover that in many ways my struggle with Jesus in this story has not changed: A Mother’s Cry Holy Surprise: …
Jesus Walking Toward Us In This Storm…
Matthew 14:22-33 If the story of the disciples at sea battered by wind and wave is not a story which speaks to our circumstance today, I surely do not know what is. Indeed, I have said more than once to more than one trusted listener that every decision is hard these days. Every single one. …
This Miracle:Then and Now
Matthew 14:13-21 I have not been able to get away from this all week — my wondering at what this must have been for Jesus. To have received the terrible, terrifying news of John’s gruesome death. To have stepped away from it all by himself, tending his own grief, no doubt, his own fear at …