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Beloved
1 Lent Year B – February 18, 2024Mark 1:9-15 This Sunday’s gospel consists of three episodes: Jesus’ baptism, his temptation and his inaugural preaching. Mark is brief and to the point. We are now in the church season of Lent, which began this past Wednesday, Ash Wednesday, when I shared about dust. “Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return”. It’s a statement about God’s faithfulness to us, about God’s love for us, God’s promise…
Life in the valley
Last Sunday after the Epiphany: The Transfiguration – Feb 11, 2024Mark 9:2-9 Jesus is transfigured. Moses and Elijah appear and then strangely disappear. Peter is perplexed. James and John are silent. God speaks. The disciples are overcome with awe. Jesus tells them to say nothing about what has happened! Mystery and divine presence are pervasive in our stories for today. So, what is the message for us? On Transfiguration Sunday, we come to the end of another church season,…
Healing and relationship
5 Epiphany – February 4, 2024Mark 1:29-39 Our gospel selection for today has three parts: a healing story, a description of the multitude brought to Jesus and the many who are healed and exorcised, an account of Jesus going to the wilderness to pray and, when found, expresses his resolve to go to proclaim the message in the towns throughout Galilee. The scenes alternate between “private” and “public,” an encounter among a few people in a “house,” then…
Our demons
4 Epiphany Year B – January 28, 2024Mark 1:21-28 So, I think today’s gospel story may be difficult for many of us to relate to. It sounds like an exorcism story and many of us have no direct experience of that. But there is so much we can learn from it. Mark tells this story about unclean spirits, and he tells it up front; in other words, at the very beginning of the Gospel of Mark. Keep in…
Invited and called
3 Epiphany Year B – January 21, 2024Mark 1:14-20 Let me repeat: “Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent and believe in the good news.” The time is fulfilled. The Greek for time here is kairos….meaning this is significant time; the moment of truth; a decisive moment; God’s time. Jesus says the time is fulfilled…
“Vision in the Kitchen”
2 Epiphany – January 14, 2024John 1:43-51 Epiphany is a season of light and revelation, a season of searching, discovering, finding, and knowing. What can we learn from the penetrating and grace-filled vision of God in these days? If Jesus were here right now, looking at what we’re looking at, what would he see? In our reading from John’s Gospel, we encounter a skeptic named Nathanael who thinks he knows exactly who God is and how God operates. Nathaniel…
I See you
Epiphany Year B– January 7, 2024Matthew 2:1-12 Happy New Year! Happy Epiphany! It is the end of our Christmas season and the beginning of church season of Epiphany. A season of recognizing Christ’s surprising appearances or manifestations in our lives. Today we hear the wonderful story of the magi, the wise men, following a star to see the Christ child. It is a story of hope. Hope in the midst of great struggle. Each year, Jan Richardson creates and…
Charlie Brown Christmas
Christmas Eve 2023 There is a reason we celebrate Christmas at the end of December, when the weather is cold, the days short, the nights long and dark. There is a reason we celebrate Christmas at the darkest, coldest time of the year. Our ancestors in the faith knew why. They knew something about night, and about darkness. They who lived in a world lit only by fire, knew that their world, at least at this time of…
who are you?
3 Advent – December 17, 2023John 1:6-8, 19-28 Our gospel for today tells us more about who John was NOT rather than about who he was: he wasn’t the light; he wasn’t the Messiah; he wasn’t Elijah; he wasn’t the prophet.” Who, then, was he? Well, he was a witness and he was a voice – a voice telling people to prepare for someone else, someone whose sandal thong John was unworthy to untie. He was a voice of one…
Awareness of God?
2 Advent – December 10, 2023Mark 1:1-8 John the Baptist is best known as the forerunner of Jesus, the one who calls on people to prepare the way of the Lord’s coming. He is the messenger, the voice of one crying out in the wilderness. Forerunners are often unseen figures and unsung heroes. And their back stories are unknown. The details of their lives are underimagined or undervalued. They garner minimal attention, because they are forerunners—those who plow the…
Darkness and Light
1 Advent – December 3, 2023Mark 13:24-27 Happy New Year. Happy Advent. It is the beginning of the new church calendar year and isn’t it interesting that the new church year is roughly one month before the secular new year? There is a lot that rides on the turning from December 31 to January 1 — new resolutions, new starts, new beginnings. I suspect there is less consideration given to this move from the season of Pentecost to Advent.…
Risk
22 Pentecost – November 19, 2023Matthew 25:14-30 Our gospel reading this morning is often called the Parable of the Talents. The parable is about a wealthy man who goes away on a long journey. Before he departs, he distributes his property to three servants. It is a great deal of money. The first two servants put their money to work and double it. The third servant takes a different approach with his money, his one talent. He digs a…