“So if the Word is fully God, a person in that peculiar understanding of God as Trinity, our strength and our stumbling block to the rest of the world, he also is a human person known and testified to by a local religious prophet. And in the whole of John 1:1-18 the narrative bounces back and forth between Jesus as Word and John the Baptizer as witness.”
“The Herods have multiplied, and they are still afraid, and still killing the innocent. Anti-Semitism and racist attacks. Genocides on tiny minority ethnicities throughout South East Asia and the Middle East. Attacks on Christian communities throughout Africa. And here at home, the Wall and children in cages. And a planet burning up, being destroyed through human greed. Oceans rising and life dying, fleeing if they can. Too much. Where to start? Where to pray? Where to act?”
“Let’s catch up. There was Christmas, the Feasts of St. Stephan and St. John, the horror of Holy Innocents, (not over yet. Think U.S./Mexican border), and we have Circumcision and Epiphany yet to go. But now it is just plain “Saint” Monday. Let’s look at 1 Kings 17:17-24 and John 4:46-54. They are both healings. The first by Elijah, the second by Jesus.”
“One day when Zechariah was on the rota to serve in the inner court at the altar of incense, and he was alone, the people praying outside, an angel appeared to him and terrified him. “Do not be afraid.” A statement which is meant to calm, but also a statement that God is present in this angelic messenger, and that is terrifying. And the angel told him many things, this angel who was Gabriel who stands in the presence of God.”
“The warnings in Scripture should not be taken lightly, old fashioned tales believed by the uneducated and superstitious, metaphors, means to control the meek. Hear them as real as today’s headlines. But this is not a call for Kool-Aid and tinfoil hats. This is a call for repentance, confession, seeking forgiveness, placing our hearts in fear and trembling before our God, letting ourselves be healed. Not punished. Healed.”
“A group of Sadducees approached Jesus with a question. One woman is successively married to seven brothers as each brother dies. The Sadducees asked which brother would be the real husband according to the law if there were resurrection.”
“It is the beginning of the journey to the Cross, and to the Ascension, and to the coming of the Holy Spirit, the circle of the year where we can live over and over again the life of Jesus, of our Christ, our Savior, trying to grow ever more like him, ever closer to God our Father/Mother, ever closer to the peace of Salvation.”
“We are so much like the Early Church, and we are struggling and making the same mistakes. But we are exhorted to be humble, be like those little children whom Jesus cherished and used as an example. Love one another and avoid malice and envy and pride and all those other very human things. Be holy.”
“So maybe Peter wasn’t being the fool we sometimes take him for. He knew. And he didn’t want to know. He wanted to stay up there frozen in time. In love and safety and companionship. In His presence. And we believe Peter will be there again and we all will at the end of time. But not yet. And that is hard. It hurts.”
“We certainly urge civil behavior especially in Christian community. But we are also following not only our Lord, the merciful one, who lifts up the oppressed, but also the fearless rebel who speaks truth to worldly power no matter the cost.”