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he Passion, as we heard in that first gospel reading, begins with Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem not on a throne surrounded by dignitaries, but on a beast of burden surrounded by peasants looking for hope. This is the tipoff that we are dealing with a very different king. I would like to look at a passage from the beginning of the Passion and a passage from the end of the Passion. Both passages tell us how this very different …

All three Scripture readings deal with images of new life. They are all about people getting stuck and then getting unstuck, because God opened up a new path before them. Isaiah (700 B.C.) is speaking to the Hebrews who are stuck in captivity in Babylon and who long to come back home to Israel. Isaiah tells the people, “Remember, 600 years ago, God made a way in the sea, a path in the mighty waters, through the Red Sea, so …

A group of us, back in 1989, when we started at seminary, were told that should we be ordained, someday, we will discover that 95% of all the problems that come our way will either have to do with peoples’ false image of God or false image of self. Based on my informal information gathering after 25 years of ministry, I think the number is actually closer to 99%.  So, let’s look at this classic scripture story of forgiveness …

If you don’t remember, I’ll recall it for you. Last Sunday’s first reading was about God promising Abraham that he would be the father of a great nation. Believe it or not there would be more inhabitants, in this great nation, than there are stars in the heavens. It seems, today’s first reading tells us that the party is over. Abraham is long dead, and his descendants are slaves in Egypt. So much for a great nation…or is it?

Intending to speak only for myself, but I might also be speaking for others, I can say that I rarely give spiritual experiences the due they are owed. I rarely pay attention to them in the ways I should. It’s much easier for me to go up into my head and find the correct theology or repeat the words of a saint or a theologian rather than exploring where God might be leading me through the experiences of my …

There is an urgency in the Ash Wednesday readings and an urgency in the readings we have throughout the entire 40 days of Lent. They seem to be saying, “Act now and don’t put off till tomorrow what needs to be done today!” That urgency is connected to Jesus’ own journey to Jerusalem. It is crunch time for Jesus. With each Sunday’s readings, you will notice he is getting closer and closer to Jerusalem, and things are getting darker …

We are all familiar with Jesus’ expression about taking the log out of your own eye before you proceed with trying to take the speck out of your neighbour’s eye. We all know exactly what that means. But it is one of those sayings of Jesus that we would rather apply to others than to ourselves. At least that’s the way I would like to see it applied. I would rather attempt to straighten out everyone else before considering …

I can see, when the Church reworked the lectionary in the early 1960s, why they gave us that first reading from the Book of Samuel and that gospel passage from Luke to be proclaimed on the same Sunday; they mesh so well together. They also happen to be two of the most challenging pieces of Scripture to live up to, at least in my own life.

Let’s look at Samuel and Luke and see where they …

Let’s face it, when things go well, faith is not difficult. On top of that, when things go well, there’s no drive to develop our faith any further. After all, if things are going well, I must be the reason for my own success. Here’s a little story that illustrates what I’m talking about. It centers on a Jewish grandmother, but remember this Jewish grandmother lives in every one of us. 

There was this Jewish woman …

The readings are a little bit on the long side this weekend, so I don’t expect you to remember, in detail, what you heard in that first reading. Suffice it to say, all three readings are about God calling someone, all three readings are about someone feeling unworthy or unqualified to answer the Lord’s call, and all three readings are about people overcoming their reluctance and responding to God in a positive way, a life-changing way.