(The following is an excerpt from a book I’m working on. Should be finished soon…) There’s a fantastic scene in the third chapter of the Gospel of Luke where we’re introduced to the wild-eyed prophet, John the Baptist. Crowds gathered around him wondered if he was the One who was sent by God to save them and the whole world. John greeted these curious onlookers who were coming to be baptized with these words: You […]
What’s that they say about ‘best laid plans?’ Months ago I had planned this Sunday as a ‘welcome back’ Sunday where we’d have all the kids in church, and have them come up and get involved in the sermon… There’d be a tear in every mother’s eye, and the fall program year would be kicked off successfully. And then a few weeks ago I checked the Gospel lesson of the day. Ooops. Nothing like telling […]
Imagine going to the store and buying a box of 100 crayons in preparation for your children going back to school. You bring your shopping home, you sling your bag of goods onto the table, and you take out the box of crayons. You open up the box of crayons… and there are only 99 of them. One has gone missing. You were sure that they were all there when you bought them. The crayons […]
It would probably be safe to say that the typical Christian in today’s world doesn’t read an entire book of the Bible in a day. And even safer to say this usually doesn’t happen before lunch But, on this Sunday, that exactly what our congregations will be treated to – or just about anyway. Our epistle lesson is from the Paul’s Letter to Philemon – or should I say that It’s the entire epistle, save […]
Old Testament law dictates what can be eaten, and what cannot be eaten: lamb but no lobster, steak but no shrimp, summer vegetables but no swine. Of course, these rules seem odd and foreign to a Christian audience that happily and readily eats broiled lobster and bacon-wrapped shrimp. The odd-nature of these rules, and the fact that they seemingly have absolutely nothing to do with our lives and faith, contributes to the shunning of the […]
But, about an hour later I was in an ambulance taking me to the emergency room, not far from where Washington wintered with his troops. I was fine. I had strained my back, and I just had to take it east for a few days. That wasn't going to be so hard to do with the narcotic pain killers and the muscle relaxers that I was prescribed. I could barely talk and gesture at the same time. I was fine, sure, but I couldn't move. Everything was difficult. I had trouble feeding myself, going to the bathroom, and walking up and down the stairs. I had trouble laying down in bed, and I had trouble getting out of bed.
“What stress I am under.” Jesus felt stress. Jesus was, in the modern vernacular, stressed out. Of course he was, he was on his way to his death. His death bore the sins and weight of the whole world. You’d be stressed too. But, it’s not a common subject, to talk about Jesus’ stress. As I write this, I’m sitting in the Cuxa Cloister, in The Cloisters – the branch of the Metropolitan Museum of […]
And so, here I sit, in a chic New York City restaurant, overlooking the Hudson River (ok, I had a salad...), and ready to go back into the safe and beautiful confines of The Cloisters... and here I sit typing on my iPad, and periodically checking my email and Facebook on my iPhone... And what I have to ruminate on is "sell your possessions..." Oh man.
But, this isn't a simple parable meant to ward us off of greed. It's a story to demonstrate two different interior predispositions. Do we live with a predisposition towards God, or to anything else? That's what this passage is about. And Jesus' point is the point of the Old Testament, according to Dr. Freedman: living a life predisposed to coveting anything is the road that leads to sin. And it's a well worn path. And it's a path that leads no where good.
Yes, this has been a rambling post, written by one who is still a little off-kilter from international travel, and who pines after the verdant hills of the Mother Country. But, here's what I want to say about prayer: it's important. It effects not only people, but places. It soaks into stone and wood, and grafts itself into the landscape. It's becoming rarer and rarer, apparently even in churches. And, it needs to be neither long nor impressive to be a holy experience.