Ordinary 20A; Proper 15 Genesis 45:1-15; Romans 11:1-2a, 29-32; Matthew 15:21-28 Emotions reverberate through both the Old and New Testament readings for this week. “Joseph could no longer control himself.” Or, “he kissed all his brothers and wept upon them.” The Canaanite woman shouts, croaks, squawks and cries out in desperation. The disciples are irritated, anxious to have her sent away. Jesus appears indifferent at best, uncaring at worst. We’ve got grief, anger, relief, frustration, love, fear – the roiling gamut of human feelings are woven into these stories, and I find this messy display a relief. No earthy response to life’s circumstances is considered unclean or unwelcome in the realm of the holy. God utilizes our whole selves, our whole lives, all our complex feelings and relationships to make manifest divine truth and will. Alleluia. Further, even Jesus has compassion fatigue, capitulates to cultural stereotypes and must be prodded into a transformation of the … [Read more...]

Genesis 37:1-4, 12-28: Romans 10:5-15; Matthew 14:22-33 Ordinary 19A; Proper 14 I once had someone tell me that he didn’t believe in God. He didn’t believe in God because to imagine that God cared about him, his daily life and his well-being was the height of self-aggrandizement. Further, he wouldn’t want to believe in a God concerned with such trivialities. To believe in God, he posited, was to make himself too big in the face of clearly much bigger issues. I considered his perspective. Christianity has long denounced the sin of pride, and I suppose his argument at least took that human tendency seriously. Nonetheless, I responded to him that perhaps he wasn’t making himself too big so much as making God too small. Could God not be capable of giving attention to both the personal and the cosmic? I thought of those lists of divine descriptors in several our confessions: omnipotent, all-powerful, eternal, maker of heaven and earth. The list, of course, goes on. Had I … [Read more...]

Genesis 32:22-31; Matthew 14:13-21 Ordinary 18A; Proper 13 Jesus tries to get away, at least for a short time. He gets in a boat and goes to a deserted place. Jesus attempts to withdraw and then withdraw some more. He had just learned of the violent death of his cousin, John the Baptist. No wonder he wanted to escape. John knew Jesus like no other and now, because of his closeness to the Son of Man, John has been murdered. Oh, and right before Jesus heard of John’s death, Jesus had been run out of his hometown. In the brief time of his earthly ministry, this had not been a season of affirmation and encouragement. What does St. Ignatius call this? Desolation? Who knows, of course, what Jesus was feeling when he got in the boat and sought to be alone. One can imagine sorrow and grief must have been part of the mix. Maybe even despair lurked as he thought about the people he’d grown up with ridiculing him and his cousin dead on account of remaining loyal. But he can’t get … [Read more...]