Tumble Downs

For Sunday  Proper 5A Collect O God, from whom all good proceeds: Grant that by your inspiration we may think those things that are right, and by your merciful guiding may do them; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. Reading Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26 Reflection I often worry that we don’t consider how radical Jesus…

In Matthew 9, Jesus highlights a conflict that still plagues the faithful. When leaders condemn Jesus for hanging out with the ritually impure and traitorous, he responds incredulously. It as if they think he ought to hang out with those who don’t need the help. Clearly they did. And many do. We probably don’t need to parse this out to understand the meaning, but some of it is important. When…

For Sunday  Trinity Sunday A Collect Almighty and everlasting God, you have given to us your servants grace, by the confession of a true faith, to acknowledge the glory of the eternal Trinity, and in the power of your divine Majesty to worship the Unity: Keep us steadfast in this faith and worship, and bring us at last to see you in your one and eternal glory, O Father; who with the Son and the…

Is God for everyone? And if so, what is the vehicle for this? One of the great contentions in Christianity is dealing with universality — is Jesus here to save everyone or some — and scripture is conflicted on this. As debates go, this one is a bit obtuse. People pretending to be literal while ignoring other literal interpretations. We ought to show more fidelity to the text. We’re reading the…

The Life of FaithEaster 7A  |  John 17:1-11 One of the strange delights of the lectionary is spending half of the Easter season, not in the resurrection stories, but in John’s Farewell Discourse. At first glance, this seems really wrong. We aren’t just going back in time, but going back to Holy Week. It’s a little like gathering on Easter morning and hearing the Passion. There is a tone here we…

The beautiful permanence of GodAscension Day  |  Luke 24:44-53 We have now spent six weeks celebrating the resurrection! Easter is our longest season of the church year at fifty days. That’s seven full weeks, like a Jubilee of days. Seven and fifty are essential numbers for the Hebrew people because they remind us of Sabbath and Shalom, of restoration and redemption. On the Sabbath and in the…

The Love Command in ActionEaster 6A  |  John 14:15-21 We get philosophical Jesus this morning, don’t we? Here he is, describing the Advocate and the Trinitarian nature of God. It is all very heady, in that way. And for a lot of people, this is incredibly instructive because they want to dig into the metaphysics to answer the existential nature of God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. This answers…

While the disciples are obsessing over certainty of belief, conviction, knowing what the future holds, where all of this following Jesus is going, and what God wants for the world, Jesus tries to assure them that they already know the way. They have what they need. And on top of that, they’ll have the Holy Spirit with them. The promise of Jesus’s presence. All of this is very good. And yet he…

Love and Conviction on The WayEaster 5A  |  Acts 7:55-60, John 14:1-14 A year ago in January, I was driving down to Lake Junaluska, North Carolina, to a retreat center where I was attending a writing residency, and the weather was temperate, then cold and my car’s tires were acting up like they do when the temperature changes dramatically. It waits until I’m on the road a minute. The car’s…

Safe From HarmEaster 4A  |  John 10:1-10 Christians love the image of Jesus as a shepherd. It fits perfectly in the pocket for us — it is all directive and protective, supportive and confident — so when we see it, we say yes, that’s what we want. A leader who can protect us from the wolves, who can tell us what to do, keep us from hurting ourselves, and we can be assured that they have…

For Sunday  Easter 4A Collect O God, whose Son Jesus is the good shepherd of your people: Grant that when we hear his voice we may know him who calls us each by name, and follow where he leads; who, with you and the Holy Spirit, lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. Reading John 10:1-10 Reflection Jesus sometimes has trouble with mixing metaphors. I was taught to avoid this…

Jesus likes to talk of sheep and shepherds. And it continues to be among the favorite linguistic patterns for people of faith. We talk of leaders as shepherds and their people are their flocks. It is all so easy for us. And yet, at the same time, we aren’t terribly interested in learning about the psychology of livestock, which might complicate our use of the image. Sheep become a shorthand for…

For Sunday  Easter 3A Collect O God, whose blessed Son made himself known to his disciples in the breaking of bread: Open the eyes of our faith, that we may behold him in all his redeeming work; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. Reading Luke 24:13-35 Reflection To mention Emmaus in many circles is to speak of revelation and…

Messages of action in a time of fearEaster 2A, John 20:19-31 Mary Magedalene visited the tomb where they laid Jesus to rest only to find it empty. She brought this strange news to the disciples, two of whom raced each other to see for themselves this odd sight, this strange occurrence. And the two leave her there, perplexed and perhaps frightened.  It is after they leave that she investigates,…

For Sunday  Easter 2A Collect Almighty and everlasting God, who in the Paschal mystery established the new covenant of reconciliation: Grant that all who have been reborn into the fellowship of Christ’s Body may show forth in their lives what they profess by their faith; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and…

Doubt is frequently paired with faith as an opposite, bearing oppositional qualities, or reflecting two ends of a spectrum. We do this to speak of certain aspects within belief or to create confidence in the outcomes of our decisions. Decisions that come from characteristics we call doubt or belief. This, however, is limiting, rigid, and smooths out the rough edges of reality, experience, and…

New Life and the Grace of GodEaster  |  John 20:1-18 Halleluiah! He is risen! We say it that way: he is risen. And many of us respond naturally, The Lord is risen indeed. Hallelujah! We’ve been trained. But the words, he is risen denote that Jesus is the object, the beneficiary of the divine act. The act is raising Jesus from among the dead. He isn’t waking up on his own accord, friends. He has…