Daily Liturgy and Scripture

This thing with the fish seems familiar. Jesus has served fish before on hillsides full of curious seekers. This time, it is a small meal for those closest to him, but it is still full of significance. Jesus provides the meal despite the massive amount of fish the apostles have. (It can certainly be argued that he provided those too!) He is pouring out abundance on them, and especially Peter, who...

“These are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” This is the reason John gives for writing, and was one of Jesus's reasons for walking among us. That was no less true among his early followers, and the difference between Mary and Thomas is a great example. Mary requires only hearing her own name, and...

It might be easy to criticize Joseph and Nicodemus for seeming to show up late to the party. Weren’t they Jewish leaders? Couldn’t they have done something to stop all of this before doing the work of gravediggers? Laying aside the fact that all of the crucifixion events were fulfilling scripture, many of us have probably been in their place. Maybe we couldn’t change the way things were, but we co...

This is a power struggle unlike any in history. Pilate, the Roman governor who holds most of the immediate power, seems in a struggle against his one conscience. The religious leaders appear to be using the crowd to drive home the outcome they want, and in the middle of it is the Son of God. While Jesus is truly powerful, he is choosing to take a position of weakness, not even defending himself. T...

Jesus has spent a lot of time talking about his Kingdom, and now he outlines the purpose of his kingship to Pilate: to testify to the truth. There is a lot to unpack in that statement (which is why there are so many parables explaining the Kingdom) but at the end of the day, Jesus established the Kingdom to show a better way, and to bring God together with humanity.

Here's a wild idea to consider: the "other disciple" that knew the high priest and got Peter entrance to the yard was probably John himself. He often referred to himself in his own book in the third person. Peter being questioned as "also" being a disciple might imply that John was already identified as one, but John was still respected enough to get Peter into the courtyard. If this is the case,...

We are not alone in this Kingdom that Jesus built, and neither is he. He is in the Father, and we are in the Son. We are the body of Christ, and that means we are doing the work that he started. His strength is ours, and his Father is ours.

Jesus did not come to erase the whole canon of Hebrew scripture to that point and drop in the New Testament as a replacement. He came to fulfill the Law and give it life. He was presented in the Temple according to Jewish law, and not without special recognition. This was the first of many times Jesus would show that what had God said before his birth still mattered, and that the plan was set in m...

The time is coming when what the disciples believe about Jesus will be come critical. Not just because they need to believe the things he has said, but because they need to believe that he is at the right hand of the Father, part of the trinity. This would become a radical change in worship and humanity’s view of God.

The laying out of life in the Trinity continues: Jesus has been doing the work of the Father, and the Spirit will do the work of the Son. This isn’t a hierarchy, because the members of the Trinity do not obey some ultimate high God. Rather, this is a cooperative effort, something which some have compared to a dance. The work of the Trinity is all about one purpose, and God is enfolding mankind in...

Jesus is talking about the progression of God’s plan, the coming of the Spirit, and the work that will be done by that Spirit. But the Spirit is not working alone, because the apostles, and those who will follow them, are included in that Spirit work. The Spirit works in people, but Jesus came as a person because humanity remained central to God’s plan.

Jesus as God among us is more than God showing up, it is people learning how to live in the continuing presence of God. Jesus is expressing this with the language of, “abiding,” where we do not merely show up and see God, but walk and live and breathe with God as a constant presence near us.

Jesus lets his disciples in on a very important piece of prophecy: the Spirit is coming. It's unlikely they really understood what he meant and wouldn't fully until they experienced the Spirit moving at Pentecost (spoiler!) but this was amazing inside information. The full Trinity, the God in which we find ourselves immersed today, was God's next big move in the master plan.

Jesus is God. Jesus looks like God, and God looks like Jesus. His life affirms what God looks like in a way that is real and understandable to us, so we need to let go of any vision of God that doesn’t look like Jesus. Even the apostles had a hard time understanding this, but Jesus says it plainly: “I am in the Father, and the Father is in me.” God is a Trinity in motion that includes Jesus, who i...

Jesus is just about finished turning his disciples’ vision of power upside down, but not quite: taking on the role of a servant and washing their feet is scandalous. This is why Peter tried to stop him. But Jesus, as he said elsewhere, did not come to be served but to serve. This is perfectly shown as the muddy water from his disciples’ feet rolls off his hands.

The story of Paul's conversion is an important one for many reasons. First, because it it a critical part of God's plan to reach the non-Jews. But also, it is a reminder that God's plan is never thwarted, and sometimes God brings people we'd never imagine into his work. The Christians of Paul's day would have feared him, but God made him into a key player for the cause of Christ.

Jesus is finding out what people really believe about him, and the expressions are becoming more dramatic. Mary shows the signs of a devoted follower, lavishing expensive perfume on him. The religious leaders continue to plot his death, and even extend their plans to Lazarus. Jesus has come a long way since the manger, and he has had a profound effect on those around him, both friends and enemies.

Strange that Jesus's enemies were not only powerless to stop God's plan from playing out in Jesus, but also that they strangely played a role in affirming his Lordship. Even Caiaphas, the chief priest who would come to play a leading role in the crucifixion, prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation. While he probably meant that Jesus would die to take the tension of rule under the Romans, Je...

“Jesus wept” may be the shortest verse of the Bible, but there’s a lot wrapped up in that moment. Jesus didn’t weep because he had messed up the healing of Lazarus and let him die, I don’t think. Several times in this passage, he says that things were happening so that those around him would believe, and they were missing the point. They were missing what he was doing because they were distracted...

Jesus pairs his proof of being sent from the Father with his role as shepherd, which is comforting. God did not merely come as a man to distribute helpful advice, but to be among us and live love fully. This is Jesus’s role as a shepherd, and the fact that the God of the universe has come to complete that task is the best news we could receive.

Knowng that Jesus is producing some pretty impressive miracles without actually admitting his divinity is requiring some pretty deft acrobatics from his critics. He’s certainly not making things any easier by criticizing them, but the people around him need to see the difference between his Kingdom and the fear-based clutching of the Pharisees.

Has anyone ever been interrogated so much for being made better? This poor man had been blind, and instead of celebrating with him, the religious leaders interrogate him mercilessly. That’s losing some pretty important perspective: making others whole is always the business of Jesus, and it should be the most important thing.

Today's verses lined up pretty well again. In the New Testament reading, we see Peter showing belief in Jesus, confessing him as the Son of God. In Genesis, we have Sarah laughing at the thought of God's absurd promise. While neither was a perfect person and both certainly had their failures, this moment for each of them is very different, and that difference is our coming to terms with God keepin...

What an interesting pairing of verses between the Old and New Testaments today! Abraham receives God's covenant, and the circumcision for him wasn't just for himself, but for anyone in his household. That included people who weren't blood relatives. The blessing God wanted to pour out on Abraham was broad enough to be shared. Of course, the blessing itself wasn't the whole point. It wasn't intende...

Jesus is being pretty plain about who who is, but it remains difficult for those in power to believe him. Where is he going that they cannot come? Into the Kingdom that he had inaugurated at his coming. It was not a place for those who didn’t believe in him, but those do should feel secure in knowing that our judge is a loving Savior.