Jesus…is not living up to expectations. There hasn’t been a world-shaking governmental overthrow. Celestial armies aren’t yet annihilating any human ones. The Kingdom of Heaven may be at hand,[10] but it certainly isn’t making much of an entrance.

It’s easy for us to read passages in the Bible without putting a whole lot of thought toward their context. We read Isaiah’s description of an idyllic world and imagine him speaking during a historic utopia…

All our concepts of the Afterlife are, at best, inherently metaphorical. They can’t help but be. We, after all, can only be familiar with this plane of existence and the things that go with it: bodies, hunger, emotions, and other inherently corporeal experiences.

When we think of religion, “fun” is rarely the first thing that comes to mind. Rules and responsibilities, yes. Seeking a right relationship with God, yes. Church services and other forms of worship, yes. But “fun”? No, not really.

Jesus tells us that God is the God of the living and that to[1] God, figures we would think of as lost to history are actively alive to God’s presence. If that’s the case…how does it look for us to engage in resurrection right now?

Through baptism we receive ordination into the primary and most necessary state of ministry within the Church; we are inducted as formal representatives of God’s Kingdom of Love, Mercy, Generosity, and Peace.

With a couple of baptisms and All Saints Day approaching, I thought that rather than having a formal sermon this morning, it would be good to walk through how our Eucharistic service is designed to speak to us, guiding both our worship and our lives.

I’ve been struggling with distractions lately. Noise and news and chaos and worry and fear keep pulling my attention in so many directions it’s hard to know where to look. Even today’s readings are loaded with them.

…parishioner and retired priest Dr. Henry Atkins spoke about how Francis might just be the most popular and admired saint in Church history. Unfortunately, he’s also probably the least imitated.

…for Jesus, saying the word “rich” involves invoking the name of a god.

Which do we actually love, our neighbor, or our property? Which do we spend our lives facing and to which are we turning our backs? Which dominates our lives and consumes our time, effort, energy, and focus?

In the Bible, a sinner isn’t simply “a person who sins,” as the dictionary defines the term. “Sinners” often included people who had been sinned against—victims of harm, whether intentional or circumstantial.

Although Philemon is one of the few New Testament Epistles addressed to an individual, it’s completely unique in that this letter offers no instruction but is, in its entirety, what we would understand as a private and personal request.

Humility is a challenging concept for us, in part because its existence, like Jesus’ statement about it, is itself a riddle, a paradox based in contradictory truths.

While it’s true that people behave in broadly similar patterns throughout time, we need to recognize that knowledge and understanding grow and change throughout the ages, meaning no one era or society is truly identical to another. Rejecting the reality of the differences and of developments over the course of history is not only foolish but allows vast amounts of opinion, propaganda, and straight up lies to masquerade as so-called “truth.”

Isaiah’s song is prophecy—not a prediction, but an admonishment laying bare societal-level instances of abuse, one that makes clear the consequences of what God will do with those who continue to refuse to address these core corruptions.

What we read in Hebrews isn’t a record of people who remained committed to their own isolated interpretations of reality despite mounting evidence against them. We see people who pledged themselves to God, who, despite repeated faults and failures, ultimately remained faithful to God’s character and desires.

…this morning, instead of a sermon, we’re going to have a family chat, of sorts, one in which we’re all going to have to deal with the parish priest not as a religious icon or authoritative figurehead or the tacit subject of everyone’s projected concerns but as a plain old, very raw, and very human being.

For centuries, the Church has both approached and sought to emulate God as the Great Individual—the mightiest and most authoritative Cosmic Power. We celebrate and demand others recognize in us virtues to which we have no right, lusting after omniscience, omnipotence, and omnipresence, each of which we misinterpret…

What Paul’s asking is how it’s possible for the Galatians to have embraced God’s living Breath only to turn to bodily mutilation as a way to truly please God.