“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

“Then he says to Thomas, ‘Bring your finger here and look at my hands, and bring your hand and put it in my side, and cease to be faithless, but be faithful instead.’ ” — Jesus of Nazareth“Peace, doubting heart! my God’s I am…” — Charles WesleyThis Sunday, we will be joining Thomas and the other disciples as they see the risen Christ just days after his crucifixion. The story as told by John shows...  Read More

“Christ is the King, but His Kingdom is not of this world: and in the world He manifests His Kingdom by the meekness and obedience of crucified love. The cross is His instrument, and the crucifixion is His victory. He is the Lord of creation, the Creator and Provider, the Miracle Worker and the Resurrector. He is the King of kings, but He still seeks yet another kingdom in creation—the kingdom not...  Read More

“Out of the depths have I called to you O Lord!” — Psalm 130:1There are many depths out of which humanity calls to the Lord. Perhaps the Psalmist knew something of the Depth’s seemingly infinite number of nooks and crannies one can find themselves caught in—which lead to the use of the plural depths? However many there might be, no one really knows given the lack of light down there… but the Psalm...  Read More