“Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” — Matthew 18:18“Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you.” — Ephesians 4:32We begin this week where we left off last week. Jesus has told his disciples that they have the power to forgive sins as they saw him forgiv...  Read More

Jesus said, “if another member of the church sins against you, go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone. If the member listens to you, you have regained that one.” — The Gospel of MatthewThen the Lord said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?” He said, “I do not know; am I my brother’s keeper?” — The Book of GenesisIn the beginning, Adam was told to till and keep the garden—or, in...  Read More

Grant to us, Lord, we pray, the spirit to think and do always those things that are right, that we, who cannot exist without you, may by you be enabled to live according to your will; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.If I remove two words from the first part of this coming Sunday’s Collect it would read: “Grant to us...  Read More

“Jesus took with him Peter and John and James, and went up on the mountain to pray. And while he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white.” — Luke 9:28–29With shining face and bright array / Christ deigns to manifest today — (from a 15th century hymn)What is illuminated by the Glory of Christ? What is this Light that came into the world meant to show? ...  Read More

“The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field…” — Jesus of Nazareth“The Spirit helps us in our weakness…”</em> — Saul of TarsusI am fascinated with the “hiddenness” of the kingdom—especially in the language and teaching of Jesus. He interprets the kingdom of God as present—at hand… among you… within you!! And, yet, over and over, his parables and life point to its hiddenness. The kin...  Read More

“Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.” — The disciples’ request of JesusExplanations! We want explanations! Tell us what this means!! Make it all visible so I can understand!This is what the disciples wanted after hearing Jesus’ parable about the weeds in the field. This Sunday, I would like for us to take a look at this parable together, listen again to Jesus’ “explanation” and se...  Read More

“…and he told them many things in parables…” — Matthew 13:3What is a parable? Why did Jesus teach with parables? Does the method of his teaching tell us anything about the message he preached?For the next few weeks, we will be considering some of the teaching of Jesus recorded in Matthew’s Gospel, chapter 13, in parabolic form. As we prepare ourselves to be hearers of the Word, I wanted to share a...  Read More

“I want you to deal with your problems by becoming rich.” — Jordan Belfort, The Wolf of Wall Street“See, I am sending you out like sheep into the midst of wolves; so be wise as serpents and harmless as doves.” — Jesus of NazarethThis Sunday, we will be celebrating the feast of St. Barnabas, the early disciple who brought Paul into the community at Antioch—where they were first called Christians. B...  Read More

“The Logos took flesh so that we might receive his Spirit.” — Saint Athanasius of Alexandria, EgyptThis Sunday, we will be celebrating the Feast of Pentecost—the Gift or Coming of the Holy Spirit. What is this all about? Why are the Eucharistic ves­sels and the priests vested in red? What is the deal with speaking in tongues? What is the Spirit for?The quote above from the 4th-century bishop highl...  Read More

“Why do you stand looking up towards heaven?”These words were spoken to the disciples by the two angels immediately after Christ was taken in glory at what we call the Ascension—the feast we celebrated on Thursday. Why did the angels say this? Because the disciples continued to “gaze” into heaven—frozen.But isn’t this a good thing? Aren’t we supposed to “seek those things that are above, where Chr...  Read More

Pour into our hearts such love towards you, that we, loving you in all things and above all things, may obtain your promises, which exceed all that we can desire…These words are found in our Collect for this Sunday. What could they mean? The fulfillment of the promises of God exceed all our desire!!??It’s not often that Christianity is presented or thought of as a religion that fulfills our desire...  Read More

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.These are the words of the Collect for this Sunday: “…that we may behold him in all his redeeming work…” We will open our worship this comin...  Read More