When Everything Comes Together - Mon, 20 Feb 2012
England’s Henry V successfully hacked and slashed his way to victory over the French. The original text of this tune sings, “Our King went forth to Normandy, / With grace and might of chivalry, / There God for him wrought marvelously, / Wherefore England may call and cry, / Deo gracias Anglia redde pro victoria! (Thanks be to God, England, for the victory!)” Jolly good, what! But we sing that ancient battle hymn today, because a much greater than Henry goes before us. Yet our King goes forth from the mountain of Transfiguration with a grace and might of a very different, hidden sort of chivalry. But what Christ hath wrought by His dreadful fight upon that greater St. Crispin’s Day we call Good Friday, oh, it is marvelous indeed. Deo gratias! Thanks be to God!

Crowding Out Jesus - Sun, 12 Feb 2012
Well why, then, does Jesus command—so sternly, so angrily—why does He command the cleansed leper to silence, as though He’s dealing with one of the demons? In a sense He is, though not the man himself, but the evil which had imprisoned that man, socially and physically, in his leprosy. Until Jesus goes to His cross, until Jesus defeats the power of evil one final time, this particular healing, like all the others, will only be an isolated, miraculous event. None of Jesus’ healing miracles have any meaning apart from the great healing for all mankind on Good Friday and Easter.

Sacramental Preaching - Sun, 05 Feb 2012
For Jesus, preaching is a sacramental act. It’s not just saying words. With Jesus His words are doing what He says. He says, “The kingdom is at hand.” And with those words it is. With those words disciples follow, demons take a hike, fevers get banished, and diseases and sicknesses get healed. With those words heaven is breaking in upon earth. He speaks and it happens. The happening is His preaching. Tangible. Physical. Sacramental.

Tradition – The Beginning of Wisdom - Mon, 30 Jan 2012
And for those with the ears to hear...for not everyone can hear it...but for those with the ears to hear, for those who know how divine Wisdom took on human flesh in Jesus, for those who know how Israel gave birth to Messiah, who know how Tradition went to the cross and died, yet was reborn new and more glorious on the Third Day...well...for us, suddenly the story of "Fiddler" is not merely a Jewish story, but it is a story for God’s whole Israel, old and new, Jew and Gentile alike!

Fishers of Men - Sun, 22 Jan 2012
“But God has put this Word into the mouth of men in order that it may be communicated to other men. When one person is struck by the Word, he speaks it to others. God has willed that we should seek Him and find His living Word in the witness of a brother, in the mouth of [another human being]. Therefore, a Christian needs another Christian who speaks God’s Word to him. He needs him again and again when he becomes uncertain and discouraged, for by himself he cannot help himself without [betraying] the truth. He needs his brother as a bearer and proclaimer of the divine Word of salvation. He needs his brother solely because of Jesus Christ. The Christ in his own heart is [far] weaker than the Christ in the Word [spoken by] his brother....” This is what Jesus is getting at when He calls the disciples to be “fishers of men.”

Under a Fig Tree - Mon, 16 Jan 2012
When St. John writes that Jesus saw Nathanael “under the fig tree,” it’s John’s way of casting this whole scene into that Old Testament image of the messianic kingdom where each person will sit under his own fig tree and no one can make them afraid anymore. That’s how Jesus looks upon the Nathanaels, how He envisions the cynic and the skeptic, as though they are there in the prosperous ease of His kingdom, in the shade of God’s grace. Ultimately that fig tree is Jesus’ cross by which the kingdom comes; the tree with its fruit of forgiveness, life and salvation; fruit so very real that it does shape the lives of those who follow Jesus. Come and see.

The End from the Beginning - Fri, 13 Jan 2012
Yes, right from the beginning, we see the end. The cross is present from the beginning. The cross, which means on the one hand, the shedding of blood, the suffering, the death. The cross, which means on the other hand, the place from which Jesus promised, “I will draw all men to Myself.” All people—Jew and Gentile, shepherds and Magi, us and them. And this suffering-death-drawing-all-to-Himself cross is present from the beginning of Jesus’ earthly calling as Messiah, as King. But...we’re not entirely comfortable with that. We prefer our Jesus holidays neat...nice and tidy. Christmas here. Easter there. But...as the Bible reminds us...God’s ways (to our way of thinking) are anything but neat and tidy. In fact, God’s ways seem to lead to a big mess before everything comes clean.

A Real Boy - Mon, 02 Jan 2012
Jesus seems to be growing up really fast. Our Biblical texts move at fast-forward in the days of this Christmas season and soon, Epiphany. Here we are, only a week from Christmas, a week from the Baby lying in a manger, and suddenly Jesus is an adolescent, wandering off on His own. Last week Jesus was “prophecy fulfilled.” Now in this week’s Gospel Reading here He is, questioning the teachers and theologians about that very tradition. We’re still in chapter 2, but things seem to be moving so very fast in St. Luke’s Gospel. Is he making a point?

On Lighting A Candle - Mon, 26 Dec 2011
The Nativity of Our Lord (Christmas Eve) Luke 2:7 They say, “It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.” And these days, there is certainly a lot of darkness! Ooh, but how we love to curse! “Curse this darkness!” “Curse this economy!” “Curse those who mess with Christmas!” “Curse you for what you did to me!” “Curse this president!” “Curse this governor!” “Curse those politicians!” “Curse Wall Street!” “Curse the protestors!” “Curse the world!” “Curse God!” Oh yeah, we love it! And if we can muster just the right amount ...

Peace - Mon, 26 Dec 2011
So tonight the One who committed Himself into His mother’s hands at birth, who committed Himself into His Father’s hands at death, tonight He commits Himself into your hands—“Take, eat, My Body; Take, drink, My Blood”—into your hands He commits Himself. And the gentle peace of the manger wedded with the eternal peace of the cross, becomes your peace tonight.