To Live, to Love, to Leave a Legacy

In a recent episode of The Simpsons, the wealthy businessman Montgomery Burns nearly drowns in a fountain. With what he thinks is his last breath, he says, “Apparently I’m dying. Sure wish I’d spent more time at the office.”
We laugh because we know that the reality is that most people will do anything they can [...]

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Where Your Treasure Is….

The Gospel readings this month spend a great deal of time talking about how we spend our money. In today’s passage, Jesus tells his listeners, “Provide money bags for yourselves that do not wear out.” And certainly in our culture, worth is inevitably determined in economic terms. We can get a pretty good idea about [...]

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Rich in What Matters to God

People often talk about the 21st century, particularly in America, as a time when capitalism, consumerism and advertising have run amok. And while they’re not wrong, it’s somewhat encouraging to discover that as it is now, so it has always been. It’s a difference in degree, not in kind, and it has its roots in [...]

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Burning our Plows

The lectionary readings for this 13th Sunday of the year, at least the first and the third, are linked by the image of a plow. In the reading from Kings, Elijah calls Elisha to follow him by throwing his mantle over his shoulders. Elisha leaves his plow and tells the great prophet, “Let me [...]

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The Birth of John the Baptist

So many wonderful images from the readings this weekend, but I was caught up in the family celebration of my great-nephew’s baptism. I was one of the lectors and was blessed to be able to read that wonderul passage from Isaiah: “The Lord called me from birth. From my mother’s womb he gave me my [...]

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It’s All About the Baby

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 [...]

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‘The great ones make their authority felt’

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 [...]

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Jesus, the Good Shepherd

Perhaps one of the most endearing images in popular religious art is that of Jesus as the Good Shepherd. Children immediately grasp this image, indentifying with the cute lamb held in Jesus’ loving arms. In fact, this image lends its name to a method of religious education called the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd. Based [...]

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Jesus, the Apostles and Breakfast on the Beach

Today’s Gospel pulls together themes and echoes of the many stories of Jesus’ ministry in Galilee: the call of the fishermen to be the first disciples, the multiplication of bread and fish to feed the crowds, the miraculous catch of fish, the meal shared with Jesus, the breaking of the bread. These are the [...]

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