Matthew 22:1-14 First a disclaimer. I don’t know that much about wedding customs in the time of Jesus. I do know that it was typical for the celebration to go on for days — weeks even. And in today’s Gospel reading we are led to believe that for the guests, a certain attire is expected. In …
Tag: Matthew
God’s Vineyard
Matthew 21:33-46 On Monday morning we left the house early. I was headed off to a conference and my mother decided to tag along to visit her sister for a couple of days. (If you don’t know this yet, my mother moved in with me on Labor Day. No doubt, that is the subject of …
“The Will of the Father…”
Ezekiel 18:1-4, 25-32 Matthew 21:23-32 So much time has passed since then. Even so, I still offer this story with no small measure of pain. We stood around her casket on a rainy Christmas Eve forty years ago. It was just my mother and dad, my three sisters, my grandfather, and me. There was no visitation for receiving …
On Night-Crawlers and God’s Vineyard
Matthew 20:1-16 I was out on my early morning walk today. It had rained most of yesterday, and so there were still night-crawlers on the pavement — forced out of their underground homes. I never see a night-crawler on the ground without being taken back to when I was 10 or 11 years old and …
“Go and Point Out the Fault When the Two of You are Alone….”
Matthew 18:15-20 I think I probably have these words memorized — I’ve taught them so many times in various congregational contexts. What Jesus offers here is an antidote to most any problem in most any congregation, work-place, family, neighborhood. And while certainly not a ‘quick fix,’ it all boils to talking to one another instead …
Taking Up My Cross and the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge
Matthew 16:21-28 Truthfully, I was not sure at first just how these actually fit together: this business of taking up our cross and going after Jesus and pouring a bucket of ice water on your head. What I did recognize in myself is that as more and more people I knew were posting videos on Facebook …
The Rock of Forgiveness: Binding and Loosing
Matthew 16:13-20 “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth, will be loosed in heaven.” I have always heard this piece of Matthew as being about forgiveness. Indeed, while a vast majority of those who follow …
A Disciple is Not Above the Teacher…
Matthew 10:24-39 “A disciple is not above the teacher…” It came to mind today as I was reading tender Father’s Day tributes on Facebook. It was as I was scrolling through the photographs that one had me standing still in memory. Perhaps it was no coincidence that I had remembered him out loud already once …
Bright Red Cellophane and the Easter Promise
Matthew 28:1-10 I must have been about seven years old. We had gone to visit our Grandpa for Easter that year. I was standing in the kitchen. Although there were people all around me, the room went silent in my mind as I looked up. On the top shelf of the small closet which stood …
“Humble and Mounted on a Donkey…”
Matthew 21:1-11 I find myself thinking about the donkey and her colt whichJesus rode into Jerusalem so long ago. Now let me say first that I never much thought about the donkeys before, but this time through they caught my attention and my imagination. As I have sat with them this week, I have come to know …