The Church of Saint Matthew - Saint Paul’s West Side

  Today, we begin the final weeks of preparation before the Easter Feast. In reading this gospel passage, it's not uncommon that the first couple of sentences become, if you will, throwaway sentences, because we wait until we get the actual words of Jesus, and that's what sticks in our minds. The passage starts by saying that there were some Greeks who came to worship at the Passover, and they wan...

Some Greeks had come to worship at the Passover Feast, and they came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and they said to him, "Sir, we would like to see Jesus." Philip went and told Andrew, and then Andrew and Philip went together and told Jesus. Jesus said to them, "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly I say to you, unless the grain of wheat falls to the earth an...

  Jesus said to Nicodemus, "Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the son of man be lifted up so that those who believe in him may have eternal life. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. So that those who believe in him would not perish, but would have life eternal. God did not send his son into the world in order to condemn the world. But the world might...

To set the stage a little bit for today's gospel reading, the public ministry of Jesus as recorded in St. John's gospel begins with Jesus and His relationship, His connection with John, the baptizer and His baptism in the Jordan. And then immediately after that, Jesus is choosing His disciples. Andrew first, and then Peter, James and John. Then Philip, and then Nathaniel. When He has this small gr...

Since the Passover was near, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple area, He found those who sold oxen, sheep, and doves, as well as money changers seated there. He made a whip out of cords and drove them all out of the temple area with sheep and oxen as well. He spilled the coins of the money changers, He overturned their tables, and to those who sold the doves, He said, "Take those out of her...

With this episode in St. Mark's gospel known as The Transfiguration, we arrive exactly at the midpoint of the gospel. It is the second scene in the gospel in which Jesus is affirmed as the Son of God. The first is at the time of baptism in the Jordan when he comes out, out of the water and the Spirit descends upon him, and there's a voice from the cloud saying, "This is my Beloved Son." Then the t...

Jesus took Peter and James and John. He led them up a high mountain by themselves and, there, He was transfigured before them. His clothes became dazzling white. Elijah appeared to them along with Moses, and they stood talking with Jesus. Peter then spoke up and said, "Rabbi, it is good that we are here. Let us make three tents: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah." Peter hardly knew wh...

  I need to make a disclaimer before I begin that the ideas that I'm going to be offering to you were ideas that were offered to me by a Benedictine Sister, Laureen Virnig from St. Joseph, Minnesota. So I want to give her credit for or blame for whatever there is. St. Mark is the Ernest Hemingway of the gospels. He writes in simple, short sentences. He also went to the Joe Friday of Dragnet school...

The spirit drove Jesus out into the desert, and he remained there in the desert for 40 days tempted by Satan. He was among the wild beasts and the angels came and ministered to him. Now, after John had been arrested, Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God. "This is the time of fulfillment," he said. "The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel."

Once again, in today's gospel passage, Jesus heals. He banishes suffering and pain. He repairs what is broken. He revives what is dead. This is the manner that strongly characterizes his entire ministry, his direct and immediate connection with human beings. He seems to connect more with those who are in trouble, than with those who have it all put together. Have you ever wondered where all that p...

There was a leper who came to Jesus and kneeling down before him, he begged him, "If you wish you can make me clean." Jesus said to him, "I do will it be made clean." And immediately the leprosy left him and he was made clean. And then Jesus sternly warned him and dismissed him. He said to him, "Go and tell no one about what has happened. Show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing wh...

When people are cured, they're returned physically to the way they were before the disease. But when people are healed, there is something much deeper that happens to them that transforms their inner life. Sometimes people say that their illness was really a great gift, that in that illness, they discovered more deeply what life was all about. I know a hospice minister who said, "I would pay a gre...

On leaving the synagogue, Jesus entered the house of Simon and Andrew. He took James and John along with him. Simon's mother-in-law was sick with a fever, and they immediately told him about her. Jesus approached her. He grasped her by the hand, he lifted her up, and the fever left her and she began to wait on them. Now, when it was evening, after the sun went down, people brought to him all who w...

This gospel passage is about creating and crossing barriers. The passage begins depicting Jesus. Jesus is entering a holy place, the synagogue, and he's doing that on a holy time, the Sabbath. And then it is there that he teaches. Now, the scripture doesn't tell us what he's teaching, nor how it is that that teaching is authoritative. And yet Jesus' action with the man possessed with the spirit ex...

Then they came into Capernaum and on the Sabbath day, Jesus entered the synagogue and there he taught them. The people were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them with authority and not as the scribes did. Now in the synagogue on that day, there was a man possessed with an unclean spirit. The spirit cried out, "What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I...

In the gospel reading we find Jesus in Saint Mark's gospel, beginning his public ministry by going into the region of Galilee and announcing the coming of the kingdom of God. It's the same announcement that John the Baptist made earlier in the story. The kingdom of God is at hand, repent, receive the good news of God's love. That's the fundamental teaching that Jesus gives consistently. The kingdo...

After John had been arrested, Jesus came into Galilee proclaiming the kingdom of God. He said, "The time is now fulfilled. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the good news." As he passed by the sea of Galilee, he saw Peter and his brother, Andrew. They were in a boat casting nets for they were fishermen. He said to them, "Come follow me and I will make you fishers of people." Imm...

In the gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, it is Peter who is first called as a disciple of Jesus. Peter doesn't play much of a part in the gospel of John. Andrew plays a bigger role. Andrew was a disciple of John the Baptist. And some would say that there's evidence that Jesus too had been part of a group that had followed with John. But John had said to the people, "I'm going to disappear so tha...

John was standing with two of his disciples when he saw Jesus passing by. He said, "Behold, the Lamb of God." When the disciples heard John, they left him immediately and they began to follow Jesus. Jesus turned and he saw them following him and so he asked them, "What are you looking for?" And they said to him, "Where are you staying?" And he said, "Come, and you will see." And so they went with...

We observe today the feast of the baptism of the Lord. This feast marks the inaugural moment, the first moment that the scriptures record of Jesus' public life. John the Baptist is at the Jordan River. He is baptizing people from throughout Judea. People have come to him. He has told them that they are to repent and be baptized, that the kingdom of God is at hand. It's a baptism for forgiveness. I...

Now this is what John the Baptist proclaimed. One mightier than I is coming after me. I am not worthy to stoop down and untie his sandal strap. I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. Now it happened in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized in the Jordan River by John. On coming out of the water, He saw the heavens torn open and...

The scripture readings that the church puts before us during the Christmas season are so full, so full with overlaying themes that all one can do is to take one or other of those themes and reflect upon it. I suggest that this feast is about the hunger of the human heart. It's about the restlessness of the human spirit. It's about the search. These people from the East, they searched everywhere fo...

When Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of King Herod, Magi from the East arrived in Jerusalem. They said, "Where is this newborn King of the Jews? We saw His star at its rising. We have come to do Him homage." Now, when King Herod heard this, he was greatly distressed, as was all of Jerusalem. Calling together the chief priests and the scribes of the people, he inquired of them wher...

The very center of the Christmas season is the belief that in one moment out of God's great love and goodness, He sent His only son to live with us, to live among us, to be one like us, to enter into human history. And from that moment, history has been altered, has been changed has, in effectS been turned upside down. And now through the days and the weeks of the Christmas season, the Church invi...