Salt has interesting properties.

Salt has medicinal value, which was especially true in Jesus’ time. Among other things, it is a disinfectant and was used to treat skin diseases; however, if you have ever used too much salt to clean a wound, you know it can be irritating and painful.

Salt can preserve food, ensuring access to sustenance over time. Too much salt will desiccate, deplete a living thing of all its moisture, and ultimately cause its death.

In cooking, salt is a necessary flavor enhancer; without it, food tends to be quite bland. When added in the correct proportion to the food you are seasoning, it brings out the flavor of the food, but have you ever suffered through an over-salted meal? It’s awful.

When Jesus says, “You are the salt of the earth,” it is a declaration of who we are already, but we have choices to make about how we live into this identity. Do we help heal, or do we cause irritation and pain? Do we preserve resources or do we deplete them? Do we enhance the communities we are a part of, or do we overwhelm and embitter them?

Perhaps the most crucial feature of salt, demonstrated in all of the examples above, is that it is meant to be an enhancer, not a dominator. When salt dominates, it destroys. When salt is used to enhance, it sustains and enriches. As the salt of the earth, we have choices to make about how we use our God given saltiness. Today, choose to be an enhancer. There are already enough destroyers in the world.

Creator God, we thank you for the diverse gifts and talents you have given us. Send your Holy Spirit to guide us, that with a humble heart, we may use these precious gifts, not for our own gain, but to enrich the lives of others, spreading love, peace, and goodness all to the glory of your Name. AMEN.

This text requires no commentary, no exegesis, no special hermeneutics; Jesus has spoken. This is the blueprint. Read this slowly, inwardly digest it, and let the words change you. Make it your prayer today, and may God use us to hasten the coming of His Kingdom.

When Jesus^* saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying:

‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

‘Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

‘Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

‘Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

‘Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.

‘Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

‘Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

‘Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

AMEN.

OOPS! Yesterday, in my early morning haze, I read and reflected on today’s readings. This morning, when I reached for my prayer book and realized my mistake, I was immediately flooded with taunts from my inner critic…. “How could you miss this? How did you not see the word Wednesday at the top of the page? What are people going to think? You are such an idiot……” Yes, my inner critic is still alive and well; however, I have come to see that voice for what it is: the voice of the adversary.

In the Hebrew Bible, as in the Book of Job, “the adversary” is Ha-Satan (“ha” is the definite article, meaning “the”). The role of the adversary is not an intrinsically evil or independent force of rebellion against God. It is not Satan or the Devil as some Christians have come to understand it, but an internal inclination to act in opposition to God. For me, it is the voice of self-loathing. I once heard a Catholic priest say that he believed the greatest of all sins is the sin of self-loathing, because it despises someone created in the image and likeness of Christ. Indeed, it is the voice that rejects and criticizes my God given humanity. Ha-Satan tells me I should be better, wiser, and, well, perfect.

Mercifully, God does for me what I can’t do for myself. In those moments of torment, God is always there to turn to, reminding me that I am loved and perfectly cared for in Christ. It is, of course, a choice to turn to God, but often God will place at my feet the encouragement I need. Today, it came in the Epistle reading linked above: “My speech and my proclamation were not with plausible words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom but on the power of God.” (1 Cor 2:4-5)

I suspect my Ha-Satan will always be with me, and I believe that allowing that voice to say what it wills, hearing it, and feeling it is the very thing that keeps me grounded in the power of God and constantly returning to his merciful love. I am reminded of Isaiah 30:15, "In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and confidence shall be your strength." Alleluia!

Heavenly Father, we come before you with hearts full of gratitude for the gift of life and the very essence of our human nature; our ability to love, to feel, and to grow in you. Thank you for your merciful love that sustains us, your grace that forgives us, and your strength that lifts us when we are weak and guides us when we are lost. Grant that in our turning to you, our lives may reflect your loving kindness and spread it to the world around us. AMEN.

Immediately…..

This text is a familiar story of Jesus calling his first disciples with a “signature” phrase used to describe a new mission - “I will make you fish for people.” Many debate exactly what that cryptic phrase means, but what interests me more is the word that follows that phrase, “immediately.” Why would hardcore fishermen immediately leave everything to follow a stranger who has nothing to offer but a weird job description?

What was it about Jesus that pulled so hard on their hearts they immediately abandoned their whole lives to follow him into the unknown? We, of course, know the end of the story. We know who Jesus is. As Christians, we believe Christ has died, Christ has risen, Christ will come again. Peter, Andrew, James, and John did not. All the text tells us is that Jesus saw them, called to them, and they followed.

Cynthia Bourgeault, in her book Wisdom Jesus, talks about this encounter and others like it as a recognition event. It is a heart-to-heart encounter that bypasses the intellect. There is no good reason for the disciples to leave everything and follow Jesus, but they saw him with their hearts. It was this deep inner knowing—a heart-to-heart connection—that prompted them to act immediately without first considering what was in it for them. What does this recognition event mean for us?

The murder of Charlie Kirk painfully reinforced how incredibly violent, divisive, and broken our world is. The sorrow that yet another human being died at the hands of gun violence is real, the suffering caused by his rhetoric and profound misrepresentation of the Gospel message is real, and overall, the increasing violence and cruelty of the world is real. What is also real is that Christ dwells within every human being, and just as seeing Jesus was a recognition event for those first disciples, we are being called to cultivate and respond to that recognition event in our daily lives; to recognize Christ in all people.

I have always bristled at the idea that our “job” is to go “fish for people” and bring them to Jesus, as if Jesus exists somewhere other than in their hearts already. If we believe that we are all made in the image and likeness of God, then perhaps our fishing expedition is about helping people who are drowning in the deep, dark water created by a world that tells them they are not made in God's image. That’s the job description: cast the net of love and dignity far and wide, exclude no one (even those with whom we disagree), and do so without hesitation or concern for what is in it for you.

Gracious God, you have made us all in your image and love each of us unconditionally. Open our eyes to see with our hearts, to recognize your face in the face of others, and to love you by loving those whom the world rejects, that they might be raised from their despair into newness of life, through Jesus Christ our Lord. AMEN.

In the Episcopal Church, we celebrate Holy Cross Day on September 14th, and the Daily Office Lectonary provides a special set of readings for this day. Honestly, if you lined up 100 Episcopalians, the chances that even 10 of them know about Holy Cross Day are pretty slim, and perhaps out of the 10 who might have heard of it, most probably aren’t sure what exactly we are “celebrating.”

The short answer is that we honor Christ’s sacrifice on the cross for our salvation, which brings to mind Good Friday, the most solemn day of the church year. However, the history of this feast is associated with another, related event. In the late second century, the Emperor Constantine commissioned a large church to be built on the site where Christ was crucified. Constantine's mother, Helena, supervised the construction of the shrine, and a relic believed to be the true cross was discovered during the excavation work. Whatever your belief about “relics” is, or even the historical accuracy of this story, contemplating the tangible wood of the tree on which Jesus died helps remind us that God is present in the physicality of this world. His fingerprint can be found and felt on all of creation - even in the tangible and painful tragedies of this physical world.

The gospel text for morning prayer today contains arguably the most quoted bible verse of all time, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” John 3:16. This verse highlights the importance of having a personal relationship with Jesus for salvation. The line which follows, which I wish more people would quote: “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”

Salvation is found in the cross of Christ, and it is not just a personal affair; it is for the benefit of the whole world, the physical, messy, hurting world. Accepting Jesus Christ as your personal Savior means accepting the vocation to participate in the transformative work of the cross for the whole world - not by condemning it in its inevitable failures, but by loving it through the suffering and chaos those failures cause.

“Lift high the cross, the love of Christ proclaim!” from the traditional Christian hymn written by George W. Kitchin, Dean of Winchester, in 1887.

The Collect for Holy Cross Day from the Book of Common Prayer:

Almighty God, whose Son our Savior Jesus Christ was lifted high upon the cross that he might draw the whole world to himself: Mercifully grant that we, who glory in the mystery of our redemption, may have grace to take up our cross and follow him; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.

John the Baptist is the wild wise man of the Gospels. He hasn’t just rejected the ways of the world; it seems that he has been freed from them completely. John represents a total liberation from the rules the world lives by. He is the prototypical “crazy street preacher” with a challenging but straightforward message: repent.

While it’s clear that John was telling people to confess their personal sins, this specific encounter with the Pharisees and Sadducees points to institutional sins. John’s work of baptizing people in the Jordan operated outside the temple system of the religious authorities. In John’s time, temple worship was a thriving industry. Merchants and priests profited from the somewhat complicated structure of rituals, which required specific offerings. For pilgrims seeking to fulfill religious obligations, there was money to be exchanged, taxes to be paid, sacrificial animals to be purchased, and other requirements to be met, which fueled an economy that, like most commerce-based systems, was prone to corruption. Then John came along with a simple baptism in the river, which came with no cost and no hoops to jump through. John’s system wasn’t commerce-based, but grace-based.

In his interaction with the religious leaders, John called out the religious system run by a generation of venomous leaders whose corrupt actions and teaching were leading people away from God. He was pointing to the contradiction between their outward appearance of faithfulness to the law and their inward, greedy motives for power and wealth. His message to them was sharp: “Bear fruit worthy of repentance.” Some 2,000+ years later, this prophecy remains painfully relevant.

It is not enough to claim membership in the Body of Christ by virtue of church membership. We can’t claim to be saved simply because we pray in the name of Jesus. We can’t walk around with a Bible in one hand and a gun in the other. If we genuinely believe that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, we have to act like it.

“Bear fruit worthy of repentance,” or said another way, “They will know we are Christians by our love.”

Heavenly Father, in your infinite love, you sent your Son, Jesus Christ, to share our human nature and reconcile us to you. Open our hearts to receive this precious gift of salvation and to be freed from the bondage of this world, that we may help free others from those things which bind them, acting always in love, kindness, and mercy. In Jesus’ name we pray. AMEN

The writer of Matthew’s Gospel had a “project.” They were writing for a primarily Jewish audience to demonstrate that Jesus is the promised Messiah. With more than 130 references and allusions to the Old Testament, the Gospel writer amplifies the themes of promise and fulfillment. God promises, and Jesus delivers.

In this text, four out of the ten verses refer directly to Old Testament prophecies that were being fulfilled by the movement of the Holy Family during Jesus’ first few years of life. The Gospel writer was demonstrating that God’s promised plan was indeed unfolding. There can be a temptation to read this text, especially the middle part, where Herod slaughters thousands of Jewish infants, brushing by the violence and mentally arriving at something that sounds like, “Everything happens for a reason.”

People use that phrase when they don’t know what to say, usually in the face of some horror, illness, or act of violence that has occurred. It is meant to provide comfort, offering some assurance that God has a plan and all will be well, but it falls short. Everything does happen for a reason, and more often than not, when speaking of tragic events, the reason is that humans have made bad choices. Bad choices happen when we fail to discern the right course of action, when we don’t listen to the voice of God in our hearts, and instead follow the voice of greed, hatred, or vengeance.

Joseph’s example in this text is about listening, discerning, and participating in God’s plan, even when great horror is occurring around him. They are being hunted, great violence and cruelty are being done at the hands of the empire, and God asks him to take his family and live like a refugee for some unknown time. There is no indication in the text that Joseph had any idea how things would play out; he simply stayed present to the voice of God and said yes.

This is our work in the present moment: to say yes to God’s voice, the voice of merciful and enduring love, actively choosing it in the presence of evil, firmly renouncing the powers of this world that corrupt and destroy God's creatures. God has promised to make all things new in Christ, promise and fulfillment.

Creator God, pour out your Holy Spirit on all people, that we may be led by love to build up and not tear down, to heal instead of hurt, and to love one another as you have loved us. Give us the courage to say yes to you and to rest faithfully in your promise to make all things new in Christ. In Jesus’ name we pray. AMEN

Today, the Daily Office lectionary launches us into Matthew with the story of the Three Wise Men (AKA Three Men and a Baby). For the record, it actually doesn’t say there were three, and in Greek, "Magi" translates to μάγος (mágos), and it typically referred to priests of the Zoroastrian religion in Iran. They were religious astronomers who got curious about a spectacular celestial event. They were seekers. I have always wondered how they connected the celestial event with the birth of “the king of the Jews.” Still, regardless, it is significant that these Persian Zoroastrian priests were the first in the Gospel of Matthew to make a Christological confession about who Jesus is.

Zoroastrianism is one of the world's most ancient organized religions. A central tenet of their faith is an emphasis on moral choice. In their worldview, humans bear responsibility for all situations they encounter and for the manner in which they interact with one another. They have a high standard for upholding good in the world and actively participate in contributing to the defeat of evil. These men went looking for a baby king and stopped off at the place they assumed he would be, in the palace of the current king, Herod. Clearly, Herod was only interested in safeguarding his throne and devised a thinly veiled scheme to find and destroy Jesus.

As these seekers pressed on, they found Jesus, and the text says, “they were overwhelmed with joy.” Why? Jesus was born a peasant child in complete poverty. There was no throne, scepter, or royal hall. These seekers knew. They recognized Jesus, Emmanuel—God with us, and they were changed in that moment, falling to their knees and worshiping him. The encounter and the subsequent dream led them, not back to Herod, but led them home by another way. True to their own faith tradition, they chose not to participate in the evil scheme of the power-hungry Herod, but to safeguard the one they recognized as the light of the world. The encounter with Jesus was so profound that it precluded them from being complicit in the evil of an empire that they weren’t even a part of! They chose a different path - a different way home.

Jesus, you are the truth, the way, and the light. Grant that we may find and be found by you. Reveal your glory to us. Break open our hearts and transform us by the power of your immeasurable love, that your Holy Spirit might lead us to choose the path of justice and mercy to the benefit of all your creation.

Jesus, take us home by another way. AMEN.

WAIT…..There’s more!

BONUS MATERIAL:

I was introduced to this song at the Southern Lights Conference two years ago, and it has become an anthem of sorts. Take a listen….

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I was blessed to travel on retreat with my seminary cohort to visit our sister seminary, Codrington College, in Barbados last week. It was a contemplative retreat led by vowed members of the Community of the Incarnation, a new monastic community based at the Center for Spiritual Imagination (click the links to learn more). There is something powerful about the disorientation that happens when you place yourself outside of your known environment.

Barbados, a beautiful island nation located in the southernmost part of the Caribbean, bears little physical resemblance to my island home in Long Island, New York. The rhythm of life at Codrington is one of a traditional seminary, punctuated by bells and centered around communal prayer and worship, a far cry from the largely solitary life of a second-career seminarian in a hybrid program of study. Being taken out of one way of life and placed in another is a surefire way to reset one’s perspective and an excellent reminder that our trust in God is not generally strengthened by what is known, but by what is unknown.

The Gospel text today opens with, “When the sabbath was over…” The word “shabbat” literally means “ceasing” or “a day of rest.” For Jews, it is a divinely commanded 24-hour period of rest from all work, a time to reset attention towards spiritual connection, community, and family. It's hard to imagine what this particular sabbath was like for the women in this text. Mary Magdalen, Mary, the mother of James, and Salome just watched Jesus suffer and die on the cross. They were witnesses to Jesus’s last breath on the cross when almost everyone else scattered in fear. What was it like to be in that moment and then have 24 hours with no work to distract them from what must have been excruciating grief? Their whole world changed. They were plunged into the unknown. The disorientation must have been profound. It is no wonder that they got up “very early on the first day of the week” just as the sun came up to hurry to the tomb. Even though they watched Jesus die, I imagine returning to his body would provide some level of comfort in the form of familiarity and purpose.

Of course, when they got to the tomb, there was no comfort to be had. It was empty, except for a divine messenger telling them that Jesus had been raised. What happens next in Mark’s Gospel is interesting because there are three (or even four) different endings depending on the ancient manuscripts you consult (read this for a more detailed explanation of the endings). Without addressing the nuances of the various versions or critiquing the scholarship involved, it occurred to me that the mere presence of them speaks to the power of being placed into the unknown.

Paradoxically, the power of the unknown lies in its ability to reinforce our sense of powerlessness. Strict adherence to what we think we know about God and God’s plan, clinging to how we think the story is supposed to end, is not always a mark of “true faith” but a mark of spiritual arrogance. For me, faith involves the courage to live with uncertainty and to persist in belief, even when there is no complete knowledge. Only when we realize that we do not know and surrender to the Divine Mystery can we return and rest in a loving God who has promised never to leave us.

A prayer today from Thomas Merton:

This is the pivotal text on which Jesus’ death hinges. Here, the high priest asks Jesus directly, “Are you the Messiah,^* the Son of the Blessed One?” To this question, Jesus confirms, “I am.” In saying that, he is telling the truth and consenting to his own physical death.

There is a complex interplay between truth and lies in this story. We know that the religious authorities intended to put Jesus to death, and this was a sham trial from the start. Twice, we are told about the “false testimony” given against Jesus and how their testimony did not agree, which meant that it could not lead to a conviction. They were trying to convict him of blasphemy, the sin of slandering God, but they could not find two people to agree, providing the required amount of evidence to put Jesus to death.

The truth, as we understand it, is that Jesus wasn’t slandering God. The council was using deceitful tactics to convict Jesus of something that was actually true. When the manipulative strategy to get a conviction didn’t work, the high priest just asked the question point-blank - Are you or aren’t you? Jesus told the truth about himself. In John 8:31, Jesus says, “and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” But here, the truth didn’t set Jesus free; it condemned him to physical death, and he told it anyway, because he IS the truth.

Ignoring all of the evidence (his miracles and teachings), the religious authorities remained fully committed to getting Jesus sentenced to death. Their love affair with their own power led them to firmly reject anything that didn’t support their own version of the truth and to spin evidence in their own favor. This type of falsehood involves distorting the truth to serve the interests of the empire. People who subvert the truth this way aren’t actually on the opposite side of the truth; they just ignore it altogether. They aren’t rejecting the truth or standing in opposition to it; they are ignoring the demands that the truth requires by completely disregarding it and diverting attention to an “alternate truth” or “fake news.”

This is beginning to sound painfully relatable; apparently, “fake news” is nothing new. Unfortunately, in this rapid-fire, digital age, “fake news” spreads like a cancer, stoking unrest and upending social institutions. It is also more dangerous than just outright lies. Michel Foucault famously spoke, not of truth or truths, but of ‘regimes of truth.’ Categories and constructs concerning, for example, race, sexuality, and mental disorders may not reflect biological, let alone spiritual, realities. What is your ‘regime of truth’?

If you call yourself a follower of Jesus, well, Jesus is the truth, the way, and the light. There is no alternate truth. Jesus told us to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, care for the stranger, and above all, he told us plainly to love our neighbor. So, when the authorities, looking to consolidate their power, ask you point-blank, Are you or aren’t you a follower of Christ - you will have to pick a side. Pick the side of Jesus. Stand in truth. That is the only true freedom we will ever know.

From the Book of Common Prayer:

Heavenly God, in you we live and move and have our being: We humbly pray you so to guide and govern us by your Holy Spirit, that in all the cares and occupations of our life we may not forget you, but may remember that we are ever walking in your sight; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Throughout our lives, many of us have been told that failure is a better teacher than success. “We only learn by making mistakes!” quipped well-meaning parents and teachers. However, if failure is such a great teacher, why do so many of us keep repeating the same mistakes, hoping for different results?

When we were very young, at some point, we probably put our hand on something very hot; it was undoubtedly painful, and 99.9% of the time, we learned not to do it again. However, somewhere along the journey, most of us began to equate making mistakes with being a mistake. As adults, our ego often takes over and filters our failures through the lens of its own need for recognition. We are conditioned to hide our imperfections, shield our weaknesses, and strive for perfection. The need to be perfect presents a challenge for “failure as a teacher” because admitting failure is a non-starter. That’s what makes Jesus’ statement at the beginning of this text so challenging:

“And Jesus said to them, ‘You will all become deserters; for it is written,
’I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.’” (Mk 14:27)

Peter and the other disciples object to Jesus’ statement and vehemently declare that no such thing will happen. The disciples can’t even stay awake to support Jesus in his time of distress! No matter how much Peter believes that he would rather die than abandon Jesus, he will do it anyway, more than once. He is convinced that he is strong enough to avoid failure. He is not.

This story would be terribly depressing except for this fact: Jesus already knows Peter’s shortcomings and still loves him enough to die for him. Jesus knows this about all of us, too. We all fall short and we fail. When Jesus says to Peter, “The spirit is indeed willing, but the flesh is weak,” he acknowledges that in this human state, we cannot, no matter how much we want to, change on our own will alone. We are humans who fail, not failed humans. Jesus knows this, and he doesn’t love us when we change; he loves us so we can change. Thanks be to God.

Creator God, you have loved us into being and continue to love us through our faults and trials of this life. Give us the courage to meet you as we are, to share with you our deepest insecurities, fears, and failures, that we might feel the overwhelming presence of your unconditional love and recognize that in you we are perfectly loved and cared for. In the name of Jesus, we pray. AMEN

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As the readings inch closer to Jesus’ crucifixion, today we have Mark’s version of the Last Supper. This text describes the institution of the Holy Eucharist (also known as the Lord’s Supper, Holy Communion, or Mass), which is the principal act of Christian worship in many denominations. It also, however, brings up the theme of betrayal. “Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me, one who is eating with me.” Jesus is, of course, talking about Judas.

I recently came across this poem, written by Countee Cullen in 1925 (read about her here), and it forever changed my perspective on what it might mean to be a “Judas.” In this time of difficult decisions and impossible, sometimes dangerous choices, those who choose to stand on the side of the Crucified Christ must consider the cost. It is an expensive proposition. What lengths are you willing to go? How much of the world’s scorn do you think you can bear? Would you, out of your love for Jesus, take the “sorry part”?

I offer this poem to you as a meditation and prayer. May our hearts always stay fixed on the Crucified Christ, giving to him all the love we have by doing the work he has given us to do, no matter the cost.

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Sometimes, I am struck by the irony in the Gospels. On the one hand, we have Simon the leper, the owner of the house, whose name seems to serve the purpose of letting the reader know that Jesus was still comfortable with outcasts. On the other hand, we have an unnamed woman, lavishly anointing Jesus with expensive oil. Jesus then declares that, “wherever the good news is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her.” That’s a pretty big deal, and yet we don’t even know her name. So many questions!

Who was she? The text says she “came,” which means she wasn’t part of the dinner. How could she afford this precious oil? The cost of this oil is equal to a year’s salary. Why did she break the jar instead of opening it? The disciples were arguing about the wasting of this oil. How did the woman know it was not a waste, but an “anointing for burial”? How did she know?

This isn’t the first time a woman appears in the Gospels with divinely inspired wisdom and insight about who Jesus is, a concept the disciples seem to struggle to grasp. It is what theologians call a Christological confession; a declaration of belief about the nature of Jesus Christ, particularly his divine and human aspects, and his role as the Messiah and Savior. This unnamed woman is declaring through her actions that she understands who Jesus is and what is coming next.

The most frequently cited Christological confession in the New Testament is Peter’s spoken declaration, found in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, in which Peter proclaims Jesus to be the Messiah, but the earliest is in Luke 1, where Elizabeth, on seeing her pregnant cousin Mary, declares that, “….the mother of my Lord comes to me.” Even before his birth, women just seemed to know.

The point here isn’t to draw a line between women and men, but to highlight the different ways of knowing. There is the evidence-based way of knowing, as seen in Peter, who was a physical witness to Jesus’ miracles and teachings. There is also an intimate, relational way of knowing described by many of the unnamed women who cross Jesus’ path. Like the nameless woman in this story, Jesus was a recognition event (read more here), where our heart “sees” Jesus and “knows”. It is like Psalm 42 says, “deep calls to deep”. One way of knowing isn’t better than the other; they complement each other. Spend time getting to know Jesus through study and intellectual pursuit, but also spend intimate time with him. Open your heart to experience Jesus as intimately as the unnamed woman, stroking his hair with oil.

Lord Jesus, send your Holy Spirit to renew our longing for you and rekindle in our hearts a desire to know you more, that we may confess your Holy Name, be strengthened by your grace, and be filled with your love. May our desire for you grow stronger each day, and may we spread the peace we find in you with those around us. In your name we pray. AMEN.

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A few readings ago, Jesus cursed the fig tree for failing to produce figs, and here he says that the fig tree is a good teacher. A good teacher by way of a bad example? Tender branches, ready to sprout new leaves, evoke a hopeful anticipation tinged with the joy of new life, but wait….what exactly is Jesus referring to?

“So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that he is near, at the very gates.” (Mk 13:29)

In the preceding text, Jesus was saying, “But in those days, after that suffering, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.” (Mk 13:24-25) These are the things Jesus says will be taking place. The leafing out of the fig tree is not necessarily about seeing the good things happening, but about watching for the leafing out of a tree that will never produce good fruit. Jesus is teaching about discernment and the nearness of God.

Jesus makes the point that no one knows God’s timeline, but I sense that he is not telling us this to make us afraid. The commission he is giving us here is just to stay awake. “It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his slaves in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to be on the watch.” (Mk 13:34) No matter what is happening in the world, whatever evil is leafing out, Jesus has left us with work to do. It is the work of loving our neighbor and caring for those in need. Guard the door of your heart and stay awake to the presence of God. Jesus reminds us here that when it feels like the world around you is being overcome with evil, God is at the very gates. Stay awake to what is good. Stay awake to love.

Loving God, you have made our hearts your dwelling place and blessed us with the counsel of the Holy Spirit. Draw us closer and set our hearts on fire with love for you, that we might stay awake to your abiding presence in all those we meet and spread your healing love in this hurting world. In Jesus’ name we pray. AMEN

The Apocalypse continues.

The whole chapter of Mark 13 is one of the texts referred to as the “Little Apocalypse.” It is a discourse where Jesus speaks to his disciples about future suffering, times of significant upheaval, and faithfulness in crisis. The passages are interpreted both historically, referring to the actual destruction of the Jewish Temple in 70 AD, and in a future context, referring to judgment at the end of times.

Modern culture uses the word apocalypse to refer to a cataclysmic event that will end the world as we know it, usually involving the end of humanity; think “zombie apocalypse.” In that context, this text can strike fear in the hearts of readers and conjure mental images of eternal burning damnation. Still, the Greek word apokalypsis (ἀποκάλυψις) literally means "unveiling" or "revelation.” This text, and those like it, are about divine disclosure of how God transforms one way of existing into a new way of being. That doesn’t alleviate the anxiety a text like this can bring, but it does hold the great Christian hope that God, through Christ, can and will make all things new.

Honestly, I don’t even need texts like this to create “end of times” anxiety, I just scroll through daily news headlines to see evidence of all sort of horrific events happening. The phrase “desolating sacrilege” used in the beginning of this passage, describes a specific type of horror. It describes the desecration of a sacred place, an act which renders a holy space unfit for worship, a place inhospitable to God. Here it is typically tied to the destruction of the Jewish temple, but it makes me wonder about what constitutes “desolating sacrilege” in today’s world. If the dwelling place of God with humankind is the incarnated Christ (John 1:14), then any thing that makes this world inhospitable to Christ’s presence, is desolating sacrilege. Here Jesus tells us there is going to be more of it than we can fathom.

The core of the “little apocalypse,” the divine disclosure, is not in the devastation events, or the horror, or the desolating sacrilege. It is that, “he will send out the angels, and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.” The world is going to look like it is ending, like everything good is being destroyed and compromised, “but be alert” Jesus says and don’t lose sight of the fact that the great power and glory of God is still at work.

Love wins in the end, so if Love isn’t winning, it isn’t the end.

Almighty God, by the resurrection of your Son Jesus Christ, you have assured us that in his victory over death, your love will always have the last word. Give us strength, that we might not be overcome by the pain and suffering in the world, but can meet it with your love in our hearts, certain that in Christ you will make all things new. In Jesus name we pray. AMEN

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What is the thing you have the least of in your life? To put it in another way, what is the thing you wish you had more of? Money is likely to be at the top of the list of many, if not all, people. Admittedly, it’s on mine, but if I’m being honest, time is the thing I really want more of. Time is an absolutely finite resource. You can’t make more of it, you can’t borrow it, and once it’s passed, it’s gone.

In general, the capitalistic world of consumerism is acutely aware of this non-renewable resource. We are assured, with almost every marketing pitch for every imaginable item, that this thing being hawked will save us time. Even something as mundane as paper towels gets pitched as “the quicker picker upper!” Certainly, in our present age of digital obsession, the promise of time is what is being sold. Every AI product, task tracker, productivity tool, and instant delivery service separates us from our money with the promise of giving us more time, and we fall for it. Every. Single. Time. Time cannot be saved; it ticks away predictably on its own accord.

For thousands of years, philosophers and scientists of every stripe have debated the nature of time. The Oxford Dictionary defines Time as the indefinite, continued progress of existence and events in the past, present, and future, regarded as a whole. It’s a good definition, but as a Christian, it leaves out one critical aspect. God, the alpha and the omega, is the ground in which the continued progress of existence and events in the past, present, and future rests. Time, as we experience it, isn’t indefinite. We must know this intuitively or we wouldn’t fall for the marketing campaigns. So, what does any of this have to do with the Gospel of the poor widow putting two half pennies into the temple treasury?

Let me first say that financial poverty is a real and open wound on much of humanity, and my reflection here is not meant to minimize the fact that millions of people cannot meet their basic human needs. In this text, however, Jesus is referring to the distinction between giving out of abundance and out of poverty. Which makes me wonder, what is our poverty? If we are being honest, more often than not, time is our poverty. Time is the treasure we don’t want to part with.

“For all of them have contributed out of their abundance; but she out of her poverty, has put in everything she had”

How much time do you give to God? How much time do we give our neighbor? In the offertory, many Christian churches will say, “All things come of Thee, O Lord, and of Thine own have we given Thee.” (1 Chronicles 29:14). Time is a divine gift; a resource that comes from God. How we use it matters.

The following is a benediction, or blessing, based on the words of Henri Frederic Amiel (1821-1881).

Life is short,
And we do not have much time
to gladden the hearts of those who
make the journey with us.
So… be swift to love,
and make haste to be kind.
And the blessing of God,
who made us,
who loves us,
and who travels with us
be with you now and forever.

AMEN

Hear me out on this….then comment and let me know where I’m wrong.

First, the “authorities” came to challenge him (Mk 11:27-12:12), then the three “smart people in charge” (Mk 12:13-27), and now, in a final attempt to debunk Jesus and his message, he gets questioned by the academics. Scribes were revered scholars whose job it was to study and copy sacred texts. As masters of the law, they were responsible for interpreting it and applying it to life’s situations. Taken together, this timeline of challenges to Jesus is ominously analogous to what is unfolding in our world today.

This current surge of White Christian Nationalism gained momentum in the late 1970s with the Religious Right, a religio-political group of Christian fundamentalists that was mobilized, not by Roe v Wade, but by Green v. Connally, which stripped racially discriminatory private schools of their tax-exempt status. Around this decision, a group of single-minded evangelical leaders rallied to save “Christian” education (the kind that used the bible to affirm radical racial segregation - Bob Jones University). These chief pastors, elders, and fundamental biblical scholars (see the connection), leveraging their influence, questioned the government's authority to compel “Christians” to accept the concept of diversity, inclusion, and equity (imagine that). They lost that challenge.

Realizing they needed more clout and desperate to grow their power, the Religious Right decided to find another cause that could help build support for a “Moral Majority.” They found it in Roe v. Wade, and suddenly, the Fundamentalist Evangelicals had strange bedfellows in Main Line churches, even Roman Catholics (Pharisees and Sadducees maybe?). While various Christian denominations disagree on many issues, several coalesced around this single issue, joining voices and building resistance against legal abortion, with the question eventually framed as, “As Christians, is it lawful for us to obey this law?” When the answer came back as “Yes, it’s the law.” They were foiled again, at least for the time being.

The ball, however, was rolling down the hill, picking up speed, and gaining traction in all manner of ways. If the challenge of the authorities of fundamentalist Christianity weren’t effective in retaining power, and the unlikely coalition of smart, righteous Christians didn’t work, the last resort was the scholars of the law. Under the guise of “religious freedom,” White Christian Nationalism emerged, thinly veiled as the oppressed rather than the oppressor, swiftly returned to its roots in a segregationist platform, and began infiltrating the ranks of law. Now bold and empowered, the challenge sits in the hands of the legal scholars, the scribes of our time. The fundamental argument at the center of every one of the hundreds of court cases pending right now: Which law is greater?

While this is a highly oversimplified review of a complex history, the Gospel parallels to the present-day politics unfolding are quite unmistakable. What is also undeniable is Jesus’ response:

Jesus answered, ‘The first is, “Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; ³⁰you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.” ³¹The second is this, “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” There is no other commandment greater than these.’

Love God, Love Neighbor. If you aren’t supporting ways to love your neighbor, you aren’t following Jesus. If you don’t reject cruelty and all of the laws and practices that dehumanize any of God’s children, you aren’t following Jesus. This isn’t about picking a political party, but aligning our hearts to the mission of Jesus and engaging with the world in a way that reflects that alignment. Believe what Jesus said is true or don’t; it is always your choice. However, if we genuinely believe it, believe him, we must act in a way that reflects that truth. We are either the Body of Christ or we aren’t.

Almighty God, have mercy on us. Send your Holy Spirit to convict our hearts of the truth in your word, that in following the way of Jesus we may not be conformed to this world, but be transformed in love, renewing our minds, so that we may discern what is your will for us and act on it with courageous faith. In the name of Jesus, we pray. AMEN.

A small detail in this reading I noticed today, it begins with “They sent to him….” and I immediately wondered who the “they” were. I flipped back quickly to yesterday’s reading, and the “they” were the less-than-brilliant authorities Jesus quickly rebuked using a simple parable. It’s fitting that today, those dull-witted authorities decided to send the “smart people” to try to challenge Jesus. That doesn’t end well either.

In this reading, Jesus is challenged by three sets of important and intelligent people: the Pharisees and Sadducees, both religious scholars, and the Herodians, who were statesmen in the Roman government. Keep in mind that the Pharisees and Sadducees were different sects of Judaism that held opposing theological views. This band of three uncommon bedfellows set aside their differences to join together and tried to trap Jesus by any means possible, presumably because Jesus’ message of hope, inclusion, and love threatened the power position each group held (sound familiar?).

The issues they present to Jesus appear, at first, to be unrelated: paying taxes and marriage in the afterlife; however, when you look at Jesus’ response, his message is the same. The things we acquire in this world do not translate into the next, “you neither know the scriptures nor the power of God,” he says….and these are supposedly the smart people in charge! The challenges they place at Jesus’s feet are, for better or worse, laws to manage life here on earth. Jesus doesn’t reject those laws in this text, but he points out that the flaw in their reasoning is that they have failed to account for the fact that God is God. God’s rules win.

God is not limited by the way we think this world should operate. God, as revealed in all of scripture, is a God whose promise is to make all things new. This story is an example of what Jesus prays for in John 17:14-16, where he says of his followers, “They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world." Jesus reminds us not to be defined or controlled by the world's systems or values, but to build and nurture a relationship with God, so that we can live in the world, yet not of it.

Lord Jesus, knowing you is eternal life, and serving you is perfect freedom. Give us the strength to resist the temptation of greed and the lure of power in this world. Send us your Holy Spirit to stir in us the courage to follow you in faith, demonstrating love, compassion, and integrity in the face of fear, cruelty, and injustice, that our actions will be a beacon of hope for all who suffer. In your name we pray. AMEN

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The parable of the wicked tenants is barely a parable. There is nothing complicated or mysterious here. Jesus is addressing the authorities of the day, who are questioning his authority. He tells a thinly veiled story about how a vineyard owner sets his tenants up for success, but when the owner sent a representative to collect his share, they beat and sent him away. This happens several times, increasing in violent rejection of the owner’s representatives, until the owner sends his son, who they also beat and kill. Jesus asks the authorities what they think will happen next, and, perhaps while the authorities were mulling it over, Jesus concludes the story with the vineyard owner destroying the tenants and giving the vineyard to new tenants. Duh. One would have to be really dumb not to get the point here. But I think that might BE the point.

Jesus tells us that the tenants, speaking with each other, conclude that if they kill the heir to the vineyard, they will inherit the vineyard. Really? That’s a terrible plan. Inheritance does not, nor has it ever worked that way. These tenants are particularly dumb. In case there was any question about who Jesus was talking about, the text adds this verse: “When they realized that he had told this parable against them, they wanted to arrest him…” How long did it take these authorities to reach that painfully obvious conclusion? To make matters worse, they decide to enact the exact same plan the wicked tenants devised!

The fact is, Jesus is against them and the ways of worldly power. The Son of God was beaten, killed, and cast out of the world he came to redeem, and precisely through his death, he redeemed it anyway—the paradox of the transformational power of divine love. The most excellent human plans to wrest control from God will always fail. Every strategy to maintain control, every effort to intimidate, every blueprint to war against one another, is a futile attempt to get one over on the “vineyard owner.” How long will it take for us to reach that painfully obvious conclusion?

Even when it looks like the wicked tenants are winning, Jesus assures us that love wins in the end, so if love isn’t winning, it isn’t the end.

Merciful God, you sent us your Son Jesus Christ out of your enduring love for the whole of your creation. Open and illuminate our hearts by your Holy Spirit, lead us to ponder the mystery of his death and resurrection, that we, abandoning the foolish ways of this world, may follow his way and fully surrender to new life in him. Grant that we, being transformed by love, might share that love with those around us for the good of your Kingdom. AMEN.

This text offers 3 three short related vignettes: a fig tree with no fruit, a corrupt temple, and a teaching on prayer. Jesus’ behavior in this narrative is confrontational and shocking, but he has just entered Jerusalem and is beginning his final journey to the cross. Jesus knows his time left on earth is short. He wants to get his point across. He starts by cursing the fig tree.

The poor fig tree. It wasn’t even in season, and it still got cursed, withered, and died because it had no fruit. Jesus saw the fig tree in the distance, which means it must have been full and lush with leaves. While the text said that it wasn’t fig season, the tree appeared to be in full bloom. Jesus was hungry, but the tree was only full of false promises: all leaves, no fruit. It was as if the tree was dressed up to get attention, but on closer inspection, it had no substance.

The temple is another matter. This is a significant story, as it appears in all four Gospels. Jesus is angry. As disappointed as he was at the fig tree’s lack of fruit, he is downright furious at the corruption in the temple. The temple in Ancient Israel was the dwelling place of God. It was massive, and people would come from all over to connect with God, showing devotion and offering prayers and sacrifices to atone for sins. It is analogous to the fig tree; faithful people hungry for contact with God would see this grand temple in the distance, but when they came to it, they would find “a den of robbers.” However, it’s worse than the fig tree, because what substance the temple did have was toxic.

Jesus concludes this narrative by discussing faith and prayer in a way that is often paraphrased by well-meaning people like this: “If you have enough faith, you can move mountains.” Yes, Jesus is clear that we should not doubt the power of God, and prayer can move mountains; however, taken in the context of the fig tree and the temple, Jesus is also reminding us of two important factors regarding prayer.

The first is that everything has a season, and it’s on God’s schedule. We can’t trot out elaborate displays of prayer and showboat our faith to manifest something that isn’t in God’s time. Our faith is in God’s power, not in our ability to pray a powerful prayer. Secondly, the purpose of prayer is to put us in the right relationship with God. We don’t get to tell God what to do. Just as Jesus cleansed the temple, we need to cleanse our hearts of toxic motives when we pray. In both cases, Jesus reminds us that authenticity and humility are more critical to prayer than appearance and grandiosity.

The power of prayer isn’t its ability to change God’s mind, but to change our hearts.

This prayer is referred to as the “Third Step Prayer” and is found in the book Alcoholics Anonymous. It is perfect for today’s reading:

God, I offer myself to Thee - To build with me and to do with me as Thou wilt. Relieve me of the bondage of self, that I may better do Thy will. Take away my difficulties, that victory over them may bear witness to those I would help of Thy Power, Thy Love, and Thy Way of Life. AMEN