It may feel rather backwards chronologically, but our gospel for today doesn’t come from one of the post-resurrection Easter appearances of Jesus, but from his final conversation with the disciples on Maundy Thursday. It was written however, for a community that was surely in need of Jesus’ good words.
Like many of the Hebrew psalms, the twenty-third is attributed to King David. Since he was a shepherd in his youth, it makes for a good story, but scholars can’t say for sure who wrote the song.
I believe that words are important and powerful. Not in a magical way, but in their ability to name and declare something for what it truly is or might be.
For centuries, people have told this story and talked about Thomas like he was some kind of loser. Doubting Thomas! It’s never meant as a compliment. And it’s really not fair. Our English translations of the text have done Thomas a disservice.
Sometimes I think that we have lost track of how incredible the story of Easter really is. We celebrate it every year. It comes right on schedule. Its date is carefully connected to the cycle of the Moon. And so we make our preparations. We set the decorations. But are we truly mindful of the…
In some things I am “all in.” Our lessons today let us know what causes God to go “all in.” Under what circumstances will God jump in.
Illness meant you were not whole. You could be only part of what it meant to be human. But Jesus came to bring change. Jesus came to bring God to the world. Jesus came to bring wholeness wherever wholeness was absent. That is where the word “healing” comes from, to be made whole.
Any building that is important to us will provide shelter. Safety, warmth. A place to sit and rest. Eat. Talk. Share. A place to work. To play. To make things and to make memories. This building is no exception. But this building has an additional purpose: to be the light of God in this place.…
God doesn’t need to fish for a compliment. God doesn’t need our “toadying,” as the British put it, nor our flattery. God exists and has existed and will exist without our constant praise. Or even our occasional praise. Yet God looks for our response. God waits for it.
In today’s gospel, John baptizes Jesus in the river Jordan. It was probably a baptism of immersion. With Jesus going all the way under the water.