Acts 17:22-31; John 14:15-21 Easter 6A       “If you love me you will keep my commandments.” In this brief passage from John, Jesus repeats this admonition twice. The connection between love of Jesus and obedience to Jesus bookend these verses. Love and obedience go hand in hand. Why? I confess the idea of keeping commandments is not nearly as often in the forefront of my mind as love. We are all about love in this culture – perhaps not always (or often) the kind of agape love of Scripture, but love nonetheless. We throw the word love around a lot. We “heart” chocolate and New York and NPR. We are relentlessly encouraged to “show” our love through gifts of flowers, jewelry, cars and all other manner of things on every holiday from Valentine’s Day to Easter. Popular music is infused with love and forever has been in every generation’s playlist. From “Love Is All You Need” to “I Will Always Love You” (Did you see Will Ferrell’s version to the University of Southern … [Read more...]

John 14:1-14 Easter 5 What was Jesus’ tone in these 14 verses of John’s Gospel? That’s one of the challenges of a written exchange; the words on the page don’t convey the way something was said, nor do they supply facial expressions, pauses or inflection. There have been times when I have read Jesus’ words to Thomas and then Philip as a rebuke of sorts. I used to imagine Jesus exasperated, like my third grade teacher was with me when I failed (repeatedly) to recite my times tables. I would fumble through a few and then stop, unable to finish the task. She would shake her head and sigh, conveying her utter disbelief that after so much repetition I still didn’t have them memorized. What more could she possibly do to get this information conveyed? I would be sent back to my desk with the admonition to work on them at home. It was an exercise in frustrating futility for both of us. (Not to mention my equally frustrated father, the one tasked with helping me practice at … [Read more...]

Psalm 23; John 10:1-10 Easter 4A The gatekeeper, the Good Shepherd leads the sheep out. He calls them by name, they recognize his voice and they follow him. That small detail – the fact that the shepherd leads them out – has escaped me all these years. Images of shepherd Sunday took me to green pastures and still waters, to verdant hills or sheep grazing, stationary in a field. I’ve skipped over the breached fences and gates, instead picturing my 1970s decoupaged Jesus, the one I found while cleaning out a Sunday school classroom, the one who looks for all the world like a Gibb brother with a lamb wrapped around his shoulders. No movement, just static Shepherd Jesus and little sheep. I have conflated the gate and the gatekeeper Good Shepherd with the lost sheep story, and in that conflation I missed the fact that Jesus leads the sheep out. All the gated communities with which I am familiar are about keeping people safely inside, not about equipping them to go out into … [Read more...]

Luke 24:13-35 Easter 3A And now, a word from Luke. We will be back to John next week and then return to Matthew on Trinity Sunday. But on this third Sunday of Easter, we jump into Luke for the encounter with the Risen Lord on the walk to Emmaus. I have come to see this 7-mile journey, in some ways, as a metaphor for an entire life of faith. There are doubts, despair, the inability to believe the experience of others no matter how much we wish we could, inklings that something bigger is happening, ignorance, revelation and the shock of divine presence in the midst of the ordinary. At any given time we are in any one of those places. Our faith is thankfully not static, nor is it always linear, progressing from one stage to the next, ever growing and getting stronger. Life events rock even the most stalwart of followers, even those closest to Jesus. I found it interesting to look at the conjunctions in this text from Luke. There are a lot of buts, thens and ands, indicative … [Read more...]

John 20:19-31 Easter 2A I decided to do some digging on Jesus’ greeting, “Peace be with you.” He repeats it three times in this lectionary reading from John, so clearly it is important. Recognizing that “Shalom be with you” would have been a common greeting, is Jesus just using the normative phrase in a commonplace way? Likely not, given his farewell address a few chapters back in John. “Peace” in John’s Gospel carried a lot of weight each time Jesus spoke of it. Keep in mind John 14:27, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.” And also remember John 16:33 as Jesus explains to the disciples the necessity of his departure and his relationship to the Father: “I have said this to you, so that in me you may have peace. In the world you face persecution. But take courage; I have conquered the world!” Jesus’ statement “Peace be with you” is more than a common greeting … [Read more...]

Matthew 28:1-10 Year A Let’s pause for a moment – before we get to earthquakes and the angel and, yes, even the very-much-alive-Jesus, and consider Mary Magdalene and the other Mary. I want to give them some attention, in part, because they are the characters in this Gospel story that are relatable. I can’t imagine too readily the heavenly being in dazzling white. I don’t know how to picture the Risen Christ. But I know the Marys. I know the faithful men and women who are inevitably around before the crack of dawn or available in the dead of night, no matter how dire the circumstances. I know the ones who perform like clockwork the rituals surrounding death even when they are deeply grieving the one for whom those rituals are performed. They are the ones who cook the meals and make the fellowship hall look lovely for the reception that follows the service. They are the ones who usher the family into the parlor as they gather at the church, making sure boxes of tissues are … [Read more...]