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Matthew 4:1-11
Lent 1A
When Jesus taught his disciples to pray, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil,” was he thinking about this time in his life? We start Lent each year with an account of how Jesus was led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness where he was thoroughly tried and tested by the…
Romans 5:12-19
Lent 1A
Most of Jesus’ friends have a mental list of God’s attributes. We generally think of God as being loving and just, gracious and holy, patient and forgiving. But I’m not sure many Christians naturally include in their list of God’s attributes the quality of generosity. This Sunday’s Epistolary Lesson provides a good antidote to that…
Matthew 17:1-9
Epiphany 7A
Whether we realize it or not, this scene is closely linked to Jesus’s death. For starters, the last thing Matthew tells us about, what we’re “six days later” from, is a lot of frank conversation between Jesus and his disciples about his impending death. You know the scene—the one where Jesus looks at Peter and…
2 Peter 1:16-21
Epiphany 7A
There’s an old cliché that suggests that “seeing is believing.” It’s an adage that our materialist culture generally embraces. But this Sunday’s Epistolary Lesson at least suggests that when it comes to Christian belief, hearing plays an even greater role than seeing does. On Transfiguration Sunday, 2 Peter’s author devotes part of his first chapter…
Matthew 5:21-37
Epiphany 6A
This is our last week with the Sermon on the Mount, but it is important to remember that context. Jesus started this sermon with blessings for the struggling, encouragement for the blessed, and is describing the high calling of kingdom citizenship. We are still in that spirit. Living the way that Jesus is describing will…
1 Corinthians 3:1-9
Epiphany 6A
In 1 Corinthians 3 Paul returns to a subject that he has already addressed earlier in his letter: the profound need for Christian unity. After all, in 1 Corinthians 1:10 he begs his readers to “agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united…
Bi-Level Living
I love this story, but I’ve always been struck at the odd way it flows. It seems odd to me that, on the one hand, Jesus seems to be above it all and know exactly what’s going to happen. On the other hand he is overwhelmed by the reality of death. Somehow they don’t seem…
The Seeker
In the last 25 years or so a new word has become very prominent in the American church scene. The word is “seeker.” We are a nation of spiritual seekers. People everywhere are looking for that spiritual lift, that tie to something deeper that will provide some meaning in this crazy world. Many churches have…
The Weapons of our Warfare
The first verse of our reading is rather shocking if you think about it. “Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the Devil.” We don’t usually think of temptation as a spiritual exercise. Jesus had just been baptized. In his baptism, Jesus had taken his place with all the…
Matthew 5:13-20
Epiphany 5A
When the water in the Dead Sea evaporates, it leaves behind both salt and a mineral that looks a like salt, gypsum. Obviously, gypsum doesn’t have any of the qualities of salt (like saltiness) and it has different uses than salt. But as the saying implies, if it walks like a duck, it isn’t odd…
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