Psalm 23; 1 John 3:16-24; John 10:11-18 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep.” No equivocation. No qualifiers. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The good shepherd, in contrast to the hired hand, never abandons the flock entrusted to him. The good shepherd knows the sheep and the sheep know him. The good shepherd described in Ezekiel searches for the sheep, rescues them, gathers them, feeds them, binds up the wounded, strengthens the weak ones. The good shepherd Jesus makes explicit that the flock will expand and the sheep yet to come will be incorporated, fully, into the flock. No sheep will be left vulnerable to the wolves, uncared for or abandoned. The image of the good shepherd tending to the one beloved flock, so valued and valuable that the shepherd will stop at nothing to keep them gathered and safe, calls forth a longing in me that feels almost primal, mostly subconscious, but unmistakable when I read this … [Read more...]

Acts 3:12-19; 1 John 3:1-7; Luke 24:36b-48 Eastertide 3B Do you know the phrase, “You know better, so do better”? One little girl with whom I am acquainted repeats this phrase with regularity because her mother employs the admonishment in many settings: in church, at the dinner table, after a less-than-stellar report from the teacher. “You know better, so do better.” The theory, of course, is that once we possess a certain knowledge, we employ it. The reality, of course, is that often our knowledge and behavior don’t match. Even that pillar of the early church, Paul, confessed,“I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing” (Romans 7:19).Knowing, even wanting, to do what is right and good doesn’t necessarily mean we actually do that. In fact, sometimes we do the exact opposite. And yet, knowledge seems an irreplaceable part of the equation for living with intentional integrity. Ignorance may be bliss for the one who is ignorant, but those … [Read more...]

Acts 4:32-35; 1 John 1:1-2:2; John 20:19-31 Easter 2B Marks of the resurrected Jesus community or maybe rules for the household of the Risen Lord, that’s what the texts for this second Sunday of Easter reveal. The fellowship of the One who was raised from the dead looks different from the cultural landscape that surrounds it. Those who have experienced and believed the grave-busting power and love of the Son of God respond with transformed lives. At least that’s what happens in the New Testament. “Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possession, but everything they owned was held in common.” “We declare to you what we have seen and heard so that you also may have fellowship is with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.” “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are … [Read more...]

Mark 16:1-8               Secrets people take to the grave don’t often stay there. Movies, reality television and soap operas make great use of secrets long buried coming back to life and rendering the living shocked, distressed or utterly amazed. The long-lost heir to the fortune who was thought dead crashes the family reunion. The man he knew as dad, it turns out, was not his biological father. The reason the family immigrated was to seek a new life… but the backstory involved fleeing from the law. Lo and behold the results from the DNA kit that got mailed off reveal an entirely unexpected family heritage. Grave secrets from one generation come back to life in the next no matter how silent the witnesses to them remained. How is that possible when the parties involved are dead and buried? Secrets people take to the grave don’t necessarily stay there. They have a life of their own in family lore, and future generations and communities with a propensity to not mind their … [Read more...]

Mark 11:1-11 Palm/Passion Sunday, Year B Why are you doing this? What are you doing? These two questions are front and center in Mark’s version of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem. We could add a few more questions from the other Gospel accounts of this story. Matthew asks: Who is this? Luke’s version posits a specific query: Why are you untying the colt? John doesn’t ask questions so much as state the disciples’ ongoing confusion: “His disciples did not understand these things at first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written of him and had been done to him.” John’s Gospel must always be read back to front. But Mark emphasizes basic human curiosity: Why are you doing this? What are you doing? It’s the bystanders who ask the disciples as they are untying the colt, “What are you doing?” The disciples do as they are told and relay the message Jesus instructed them to share: “The Lord needs it and will send it back here immediately.” … [Read more...]

John 12:20-33 (34-36) Lent 5B Some Greeks want to see Jesus. They must have heard stories about Jesus. Word had gotten around about this Jesus who brought a man back from the dead. Maybe one of the Greeks was a friend of a friend who knew the man born blind who could now see. Maybe they were even members of the crowd who’d waved palm tree branches called, “Hosanna!” Maybe they simply wondered what all the hype was about, and they wanted to see for themselves if there was anything to the wild stories about this man called Jesus. They know enough, these Greeks, to know that Philip is one of Jesus’ followers, so they go to him and say, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” A simple, straightforward request: We wish to see Jesus. Philip – the one with a Greek name, the one Jesus asked to feed the 5,000, the one who invites Nathanael to “Come and see” for himself that this man from Nazareth is indeed the one about whom Moses and the prophets wrote – goes to Andrew and the two of … [Read more...]