Cup o' Joe

Readings for the 3rd Sunday in Advent - Zephaniah 3:14-18a; Philippians 4:4-7; Luke 3:10-18 The Third Sunday in Advent is commonly referred to as Gaudete Sunday, a Latin word meaning "rejoice!"  And each of our readings invite us to do this very thing, w/ Paul pleading for us twice in the first sentence.  So why?  What is it we rejoice about?  As an expectant mother rejoices at...

Readings for the Second Sunday in Advent - Baruch 5:1-9; Luke 3:1-6 I won't speak for others but only me.  And for me, it's easy to read the Scriptures and see the love of God working in and through others in a different time and place and think "I wish God would still act that way now."  But I think I miss the mark.  God does still act.  God is still working in and through oth...

Readings for the First Sunday in Advent - Jeremiah 33:14-16;  Luke 21:25-28, 34-36 We begin our new liturgical year with readings that sound an awful lot like the readings from last weekend, the close of our last liturgical year.  Why, exactly, is that?  Even more importantly, these readings which were speaking to particular situations back in the time of Jeremiah and Jesus continue...

Readings for the Feast of Christ the King - Daniel 7:13-14;  John 18:33b-37 This weekend, we celebrate the Feast of our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe.  But it would be a tragedy if we only reflect upon this once a year.  Who is Lord of our life today, this very moment?  It's not an exercise in guilt, but one of choice and it's one we have to make every day.  And...

Readings for the 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time - Daniel 12:1-3; Mark 13:24-32 As we draw nearer to the end of the Liturgical Year, our readings darken and we hear readings of The End of Time.  And that is w/ purpose.  Our liturgical calendar is rooted in time and time, indeed, is linear - moving toward an end point.  But there's more.  Time is also cyclical.  As individual...

Readings for the 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time - 1 Kings 17:10-16;  Mark 12:38-44 The heroes of our readings today are two women who literally have nothing.  Nothing, that is, but a faith that you and I would be wise to give everything we have to gain.  We all know that we are called to be women and men of faith.  But just what does that mean?  It's not belief.  It's e...

Readings for the 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time - Deuteronomy 6:2-6;  Mark 12:28b-34 Sometimes it's easy to feel overwhelmed.  Scripture is so thick, there are so many books and sometimes the answers can even seem to contradict one another.  How do we know who or what to listen to?  Today, we hear readings of summation.  Call it our Cliff Notes edition.  Moses summarize...

Readings for the 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Jeremiah 31:7-9;  Mark 10:46-52 At first glance, this Gospel reading looks like just another story where Jesus heals a blind man.  But this is not just any old healing.  We'd all be blessed to be as blind as Bartimaeus.   Special thanks to Bridget Zenk for her composition and performing of our intake and outtake music. ...

Readings for the 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Isaiah 53:10-11;  Mark 10:35-45 Martin Luther once invited us all to "Sin boldly!"  He must have been thinking about James and John in today's reading.  They are bold - make no mistake about it.  And they are 180 degrees off-base in their assumptions, which were the foundation of their request.  They sought glory.  They...

Readings for the 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Wisdom 7:7-11;  Mark 10:17-30 This weekend, we get to have a mirror held up to us.  The good news is - it's not entirely a bad thing.  There are parts of this mirror that actually have us looking good.  But other parts, not so much.  The best part?  Jesus looks at us in love and names these things, inviting us out of the...

Readings for the 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Genesis 2:18-24;  Mark 10:2-16 This one is a bit more lengthy, but how does one talk about sin quickly?  So often when we think about sin, we think about something much smaller than the reality.  We think of the outer showings but pay little attention to the inner reality.  The readings this weekend don't give us that option.&nbsp...

Readings for the 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Numbers 11:25-29;  Mark 9:38-43, 45, 47-48 It's so easy to get caught up in titles and degrees and membership.  I'll listen to this person because they carry the right credentials but not someone without them.  I'll follow this person because they belong to the same group as I do, but not that person who doesn't.  It's so common w...

Readings for the 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Wisdom 2:12, 17-20;  Mark 9:30-37 Jesus picks up on the same topic that he ended with last week - if we are to be a follower of His, it leads to Jerusalem and the cross.  This is the second time of three times that Jesus will make these statements to his disciples.  Why so often?  Because it goes against everything our culture and...

Readings for the 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Isaiah 50:5-9a;  Mark 8:27-35 The word Gospel, as we all know, means "Good News".  And while the Gospel is always good news, sometimes that news can also be hard.  Today is one of those days.  Isaiah shares with us the path of the Suffering Servant, which Christians see as a foreshadowing of the ministry of Jesus.  But if it'...

Readings for the 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time - Isaiah 35:4-7a; Mark 7:31-37 Isaiah speaks to a people without hope and does his best to give them a vision of what hope would look like within a hopeless place.  For until they have bought into the vision, until they are able to see it, they have nothing to say, nothing to leap about.  They must first "be opened."  What was true then...

Readings for the 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time - Dt 4:1-2, 6-8;  Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23 Both Moses and Jesus (there's a couple of heavyweights for you!) call us out into the deep today.  We are not invited to stay in the shallow end of the pool by merely going through the motions of our beliefs or saying the right words.  We are called to the weightier things like justice and mercy...

Readings for the 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time - Joshua 24:1-2a, 15-17a, 18b;  John 6:60-69 This week comes with a challenge.  Actually two.  Joshua gives one in the first reading and Jesus in the Gospel.  Which way will you go?  Whom do you choose?  And you will notice in each case, they give the grace for choices that may not serve them or ourselves well.  They...

Readings for the 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Proverbs 9:1-6;  John 6:51-58 I know - this sounds like a JRR Tolkien novel.  Sorry, nothing so sublime here.  Just a juxtaposition between wisdom and folly that we hear in the book of Proverbs, looking at the values that each holds.  And if, perchance, we wish to partake of the food of Wisdom, just where do we find that?  Je...

Readings for the 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time - 1 Kings 19:4-8; John 6:41-51 The thread between the two readings couldn't be much easier to spot.  We can't make the journey on our own.  It's too difficult.  But what it also reminds us is that we are not at the end, either.  No matter what is happening in your life, whatever difficulties and struggles you may be facing - God giv...

Readings for the 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Exodus 16:2-4, 12-15;  John 6:24-35 This weekend, we hear about how God provides for us - specifically giving us Bread from Heaven (in the form of manna and Jesus, himself).  And while there is much to explore there, I went in a different route.  I talked about how quickly the Hebrew people of both Moses's and Jesus's day could be so o...

Readings for the 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time - 2 Kings 4:42-44;  John 6:1-15 God desires for you and I to be fed.  It's as simple as that.  Whether it is manna in the desert, food during a plague or 5,000 people sitting on a grassy field, God desires not that we remain empty and in need, but rather that we are satiated.  But there is really only one thing that feeds us, right?...

Readings for the 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Jeremiah 23:1-6;  Mark 6:30-34 In hearing Jeremiah play the role of prophet, we hear him both rage against the unjust shepherds of the day, and remind the people that they are loved and seen and heard.  In our Gospel, Jesus longs for rest, but chooses the hard work of being present to the people.  So which is it?  Are we sheep or...

Readings for the 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Am 7:12-15;  Mark 6:7-13 In this weekend's readings, we hear about the call and struggles of the prophet Amos, as well as Jesus sending out the Twelve.  Which, of course, begs the question for us - Am I called to go out, too?  If so, where and how?  And how can I be a prophet when I'm just an ordinary person in an ordinary job in...

Readings for the 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time - 2 Corinthians 12:7-10, Mark 6:1-6 So often it seems we struggle against those parts of us of which we are ashamed.  We pretend.  We hide behind masks.  And in doing so, we refuse to open ourselves to the gift of grace that God and those around us are waiting to share with us.  Life is not meant to be lived in perfection.  We...

Readings for the 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Wisdom 1:13-15; 2:23-24,  Mark 5:21-43 The foundation for our Gospel is laid in the first line of the first reading - don't miss it!  God did not make death, nor does God delight in the destruction of the living.  Death is not the vision or the desire of God - life is.  And with that knowledge, we hear two stories about death to l...