Do You Know What I have Done To You?
Maundy Thursday is charged with so much historical electricity, such thick theological meaning that you can’t take a step or two without bumping into a significant biblical theme. It’s like a one-pot meal: Passover, Eucharist, sacrificial lambs, foot washing, stripping the altar, pain, passion, servitude, glory, forgiveness, and divine love all mixed together.
Substitutiary Locomotion?
On this Fifth Sunday in Lent, the final Sunday before the Sunday of the Passion and the commencing of Holy Week, the lectionary offers us up a heavy and necessary dose of hopeful fortification for the things to come. After the pomp and circumstance of next week’s procession of palms, we will be thrust into the depths of the crucifixion, into the agony of the cross and tragically tremendous terror that is the fallenness of humanity. It will be so easy for us to enter into the narrative and lose sight of the fact that Jesus is not helpless in his hour of need, but rather the Powerful One has allowed himself to be powerless that humanity’s perpetual propensity for sin might extinguish and exhaust itself upon his life and body.
All Rise: The Passion and Killing a Mockingbird
The Sunday of the Passion isn’t about palms or donkeys or songs, beloved, it is about the cross. And in the shadow of the cross we come to the sickening understanding that we can sing, “All glory, laud, and honor” and then cry out, “Let him be crucified,” days later.
Give Up: An Ash Wednesday Sermon
want you to know that there is hope at the end of this, there is light at the end of the penitential tunnel, there is peace to be found, there is joy to be embraced, there is glory in our midst. In order to find the hope, light, peace, joy, and glory we must have a shift of perspective and discover the remedy to our heart condition and sin-sick souls.
Miraculous Ministry and the Making of Disciples
What we are learning from Jesus this morning is that the eschatological banquet table–the wedding feast shared between Jesus, the bridegroom, and his people, the bride–will require us to put leaves in the table rather than take them out.
Sermon for Advent 1C
The news cycle, the tragedies of the world, and the Covid pandemic do not, cannot, and will not have the last word: the last word belongs to the Suffering Servant who has redeemed his people.
Sermon for Christ the King Sunday
When Christ is King, the lame walk, the mute talk, the deaf hear, the blind see, the sick are healed, the lepers are cleansed, the demons are cast out, the dead are raised, and broken lives are made new.
Jesus, Greatest Of All Time
Jesus is greater than the sacrifices of IsraelJesus is greater than the angelsJesus is greater than Moses, Abraham, Aaron, and MelchizedekJesus is greater than Israel’s high priestsOne could argue, in contemporary language, that Jesus is the Greatest of All Time. Our image, painted by James Tissot, shows Israel’s “all stars” welcoming Jesus into heaven after the crucifixion. Jesus is the GOAT.
Stay Salty, My Friends
nature of a covenant. No wonder Jesus is a priest in the line of Melchizedek forever and that he will reign on David’s throne, forever.
The Baptism of our Lord - Sermon
John isn’t here to simply immerse people in water…he’s here as a herald of the eschaton; he baptizes in the Jordan as a proclamation that YHWH is on the move once more.
Christmas Eve Sermon: Questions and Answers
There will be a time when darkness is replaced by light, when death is replaced by joy, when oppression is replaced by deliverance.There will be a day when peace will reign over the throne of David and his kingdom.There will be a day when the yoke of burden, the rod of the oppressor, and the bar across their shoulders are broken.
Constant Vigilance: A Sermon for Advent 1
We are not awaiting the thief to come in the night. While the second coming might be compared to a thief coming in the night, please remember that we are actually talking about the return of the King, the coming of the One who has a rightful claim to the throne and who will judge all things and put the world to rights. Jesus is coming, both King of kings and Lord of lords, and our call is to prepare our hearts for his return, even as we reflectively prepare to celebrate his birth once more. May we be found faithful and vigilant.