Posted in Gospels, Homilies, Lectionary, New Testament on May 31, 2007 | No Comments »
While my nephew and his wife were expecting their first child and even moreso now that little Evan is here, we frequently use the catchphrase: “It’s all about the baby.” Established in their careers, settled in their house, they’re now completely absorbed in this new little life. From changing diets to decorating the nursery to [...]
Posted in Gospels, Homilies, Lectionary, New Testament on May 30, 2007 | 2 Comments »
Mark’s Gospel continues to challenge many of the assumptions that we still take for granted over two thousand years after Jesus walked this earth. Wealth, power and ambition still dominate human society. And the prophets and poets of our day continue to address it. One of Dr. Seuss’s less widely known stories is about Yertle [...]
Posted in Gospels, Lectionary, Sirach, Social Justice on May 29, 2007 | No Comments »
Too often wealth and power go together in our society. Scandal after scandal in the political and business worlds reveal a web of bribery and deceit, people who use money and influence to further their own desires rather than the common good. This isn’t anything new. Sirach reminds his listeners that bribing God will do [...]
Posted in Bible, Bible study, Old Testament, Scripture on May 29, 2007 | No Comments »
We look to the stories and mythology of our culture for answers to the big questions about life: How did we get here? Why are we here? What do we learn from the stories of our past? How do we shape the stories of our future? For Jews and Christians, the Bible is the [...]
Posted in Gospels, Lectionary, Ordinary Time, Sirach on May 28, 2007 | 2 Comments »
Six Feet Under, a quirky series on HBO, centers on a dysfunctional family running a funeral home. The tagline for the first season was “Every day above ground is a good one.” Sirach, the author of the first reading in today’s lectionary selection, would agree with that. He tells his listeners, “You who are alive [...]
Posted in Ascension, Lectionary, Resurrrection on May 20, 2007 | No Comments »
I’ve been preoccupied this week with the birth of my first local great-nephew last Thursday and various deadlines, meetings and events at work. Evan Robert’s first pictures should be showing up in my Flickr sidebar soon. He’s going to be baptized on the feast of John the Baptist and my nephew and his [...]
Posted in Gospels, Homilies, Prayer, Spirituality on May 13, 2007 | No Comments »
Patricia Livingston is one of my favorite authors and speakers on the topic of everyday spirituality. She often begins her talks by saying that she’s going to remind her listeners of things they already know in their hearts from the experiences of their daily lives. I thought of Pat when I was listening to the [...]
Posted in Easter, Gospels on May 9, 2007 | No Comments »
The Gospel for the 5th Sunday of Easter is almost daunting in its simplicity. Easy to say, hard to do, but absolutely essential. The night before he died, according to John, Jesus gave his disciples a single command: “Love one another.” And in many ways this sums up everything he said and did while he [...]
