Sunday. 13 April 2008
This Sunday is commonly called Good Shepherd Sunday because many of the traditional lessons focus on God being like a good shepherd. The twenty third psalm reflects the experience of a lone traveler on the desert, seemingly being threatened by marauders. Normally such a loner would be an easy prey. But a passing caravan, takes the loner in, makes him a member of their family, and hence stands up and provides protection.
Sunday, 6 April 2008
The good news of the Easter season is Jesus is risen; it’s been done. We don’t have to figure out how to do it. The critical side of discipleship is not what we must struggle to obtain and earn, but what we are invited to share and give, keeping in mind the great gift we have been given.
Sunday, 30 March 2008
The Easter season is not like the conclusion of a television series, tying up all the loose ends, and explaining all the mysteries and contradictions of the living Christ among us. Easter inevitably sends us from whatever comfortable and cozy spots we have, to outsiders, and always keeps before us those who have doubts and are still waiting and wondering. In one sense Jesus would never have locks on any doors in the community of faith.
Easter Sunday, 23 March 2008
That is why the resurrection stories cannot be neatly tied up in one comprehensible package. The risen Lord is a facilitator of transformation, not conformity. Of course, we are all wonderfully unique individuals, and we all are going to discover the risen Lord in our lives at different times, on different levels, and in various ways. The Good News is that God is not tied up or restricted by time, by culture, or by distance. The resurrection is revealed again and again in fresh, amazing new ways, especially as we go forth from here.
Palm Sunday, 16 March 2008
Today we are invited to participate in a journey that inevitably leads to confrontation with the arrogance of worldly power. There is plenty of reason to despair. Despite our protests, entreaties and conferences, wars drag on, society becomes more troubled, problems fester into more virulent forms and quite often justice, compassion, and reconciliation are cruelly mocked. Do not believe that this will end soon.
Sunday, 2 March 2008
There are many situations in which we are apt to feel uncomfortable at being identified as practicing and witnessing Christians. For we are all likely from time to time to be put on the spot and have all sorts of unflattering stuff and misperceptions projected on us. I suspect especially those in middle school, high school, and even college may feel keenly the pain of being regarded with distain, if not suspicion. Therefore the man born blind is someone we can certainly sympathize with.
Sunday, 24 February 2008
The story of the woman at the well is one of the longest single stories found in any of the Gospels. John used Jesus's ministry in Samaria as a poet would, in emphasizing that the Good News becomes a sign to people despised, to those who sit in darkness, and to those who are seeking. Behind the encounter of Jesus and the woman at the well is an important message of the church’s mission of invitation and welcome.
Sunday, 17 February 2008
We live in a culture that lures the fearful to join myriad systems, both secular and religious, that share a closed circle of ritual, rules, and philosophy promising to guarantee you personal safety and wellbeing. Like poisonous waterholes in a dessert, it is so tempting to ignore the warning signs until we have tried to quench our thirst.
Sunday, 10 February 2008
Humanity has a universal problem with wanting to be omniscient, to be like God, to be emperor of the entire universe. That is what the phrase the knowledge of good and evil means. It is not referring to the ability to make moral choices between right and wrong, but the pride in believing that it is possible for certain, to always know what is truth and always know what is falsehood.
Sunday, 3 February 2008
Sometimes we ask, why can’t we be more spiritual? Why don’t we have these exhilarating mountaintop experiences like the disciples? Yet often what we really are asking when we are yearning to be more spiritual, is why can’t we be more at ease, why can’t we be more sure, why can’t we be more comfortable.
Sunday 27 January 2008
We expect God to be in spectacular events or at profound times that deeply move us, as if God is confined to the occurrences of thunder and lightening. Yet the voice of God can well be a progressive and gradual thing. It is like forming a close friendship. Sometimes we form an instant close bond with an individual at first sight, but I suspect for most of us, we grow into close friendships.
Sunday, 20 January 2008
This week our country remembers the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. Most of us never knew him personally. Many of us were born after his lifetime. His legacy, however, still inspires and shines across many barriers and generations. King was a person of profound faith, and people of faith have hope, a hope that often radiates from them, far and wide, even beyond the limitations of time. “Nothing that is worth doing can be achieved in a lifetime; therefore we must be saved by hope.”
Sunday, 13 January 2008
The story of Jesus’ baptism is always read on the first Sunday after Epiphany. The basic Epiphany story is a sign that God gathers many types of people together so that good news to the world may be shown and lifted high. Baptism, like the disclosure of the birth of Jesus to the magi, illuminates the universality of God’s grace. It is fortuitous that the story of Jesus’ baptism today is paired with the scripture passage from Isaiah and the passage from Acts.
Sunday, 6 January 2008
The magi are in it for the long haul, symbolic of a planned and enduring commitment. They started off on their difficult journey not knowing the exact destination, nor having a definitive understanding of what they would find when they got there.