Worth Doing Badly

Isaiah 50:4-9a; Psalm 118:19-29; Philippians 2:5-11; John 12:20-43 The events of Holy Week are called Christ’s humiliation where He humbly exposed the contest between two kinds of glory - human and divine - that merely flip the order of humiliation. God’s glory is the free choice to begin in humility and ascend to the resurrection while human glory tries to avoid humiliation but in the end, fails...

Ezekiel 37:1-14; Psalm 130; Romans 8:1-11; John 11:17-27, 38-53 These readings alert us to the importance of disappointment when it begins, but also to the fact that Jesus came with an inclusive hope for all, for every circumstance and for all time. Hope that is most available for those who are most trapped in the depths of deepest despair.

Isaiah 42:14-21; Psalm 142; Ephesians 5:8-14; John 9:1-7, 13-17, 34-39 Who would oppose healing a man born blind? This question is meant to point fingers of blame, but to see how this Lenten passage leads us to repentance. By considering the various oppositions to Christ’s healing, we can better understand why each of us simultaneously desire and resist God’s healing.

Exodus 17:1–7; Psalm 95:1–9; Romans 5:1–8; John 4:5–26 In this penitential season, the path from conversation to conversion casts light on how God works repentance in each of us.

Because of Nicodemus’ questions, we have a better understanding of what is one of the most beloved teachings of Jesus. For us who are overly-familiar with this passage, these questions do us a great service to help us pay closer attention to the path of reasoning that came to the most consoling of conclusions connecting God’s love and Jesus’ death.

Genesis 3:1-21; Psalm 32:1-7; Romans 5:12-19; Matthew 4:1-11 The light of Lent reveals that death is now a stage on life’s way to unending life. The six weeks of Lent being repeated yearly shows how Jesus’ suffering, death and resurrection changes the meaning and experience of our suffering and death.

Deuteronomy 30:15-20; Psalm 119:1-8; 1 Corinthians 3:1-9; Matthew 5:21-37 What does Jesus’ ratcheting up the severity of the Law mean? First, we need to remember that Jesus came not to abolish the law but to fulfil it, and to fulfil us through the Law.

Isaiah 58:3-9a; Psalm 112:1-9; 1 Corinthians 2:1-12; Matthew 5:13-20 What is the difference between abolishing and fulfilling the Law? Were the Law evil, it would have been abolished. But the Law is-as the Psalm says-delightful, even if its demands are unattainable. And so the Law is good, but it is broken. And we, who have broken the Law, cannot enjoy its goodness.

Simeon’s epiphany was his recognition that Jesus was the Consolation of Israel. Consolation is necessary because the world is broken and sad. Understanding consolation means that we see how it is different from empathy. Empathy responds to sadness with emotional support that little to fix the world’s brokenness. Consolation worthy of the name means fixing the world’s brokenness forever.

Every third Sunday after the Epiphany, the texts have us again consider the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. Why? Perhaps because we need to repeatedly be reminded of how difficult it is to believe that the modest methods of "ministry" are capable of saving the world.

Why do we confess that the Lamb of God is able to “take away the sin of the world”? Because the Lamb of God is the Word made flesh. As the Word, Jesus was the invisible cause of all material creation.

Jesus did not come to abolish the Law but to fulfil it. And when the Law is fulfilled life is fulfilling. Baptism began this work of fulfilment because it fulfilled all righteousness. The claim and promise is that this fulfilment of righteousness can somehow reverse and redeem us from all that wrong with us and with the world. How? Find out on this episode.

The Incarnation of the Son of God changed the world without political, economic and military power. This world-altering work of salvation was rather centred in the calmness of hearing and asking questions of teachers of God’s Word.

Real life was added to the world in the hidden working of God, as an invisible angel rescued the Holy Family to wait it out in Egypt while God let time do His work. Spiritual power goes unnoticed but it does not mean that it is unreal, as our celebration of Christmas makes clear. God subtly subverted Herod’s futile attempt to control events, and exposed his delusional assumption that he could cont...

Jesus’s birth opened what the Psalm called the “eternal portal”. He who was Perfect became a penitent—a sinner—so that we, who are penitents might enjoy perfection eternally.

Jesus is not afraid of offending people’s sensibilities. On the contrary, He is very emphatic about the necessity of taking heed of His message of repentance and faith.

Isaiah 11:1-10; Psalm 72:1-7; Romans 15:4-13; Matthew 3:1-12 John the Baptist was a strange man whose strong message is exactly what we need today if we are to rightly celebrate Christmas. John is an Advent character who gets us ready to get past the Christmas that has become a boring materialist exercise in excess. John’s call for repentance freely expresses that we have been wrong about what we...

The church has a different calendar because Christians believe that Jesus-the Fullness of Time-has changed the meaning of time. Ordinary calendars see time as celebrating human accomplishments that sadly do not solve the problem of time running out. When the calendar focuses on Christ’s work of salvation, time measures our nearing to the consummation of our desired salvation.

How can we enjoy any peace on the Last Sunday of the Church Year which remembers the brutal truth that every material thing is this world has destined to destruction? The simple answer is to look at the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. There we see the movement of the second Creation from chaos to the new and eternity destined Creation.

We don’t naturally see destruction as a sign of hope, and so we need Jesus’ teaching to make this connection. He shows that God destroys things in order to clear the way for a better life. We do not do the destroying, but when it happens we are to understand and expect that we are experiencing a necessary demolition of the old to make room for the new.

Exodus 3:1-15; Psalm 148; 2 Thessalonians 2:1-8, 13-17; Luke 20:27-40 When things (like the Church year) come to a close, it’s time to think about what comes next. In this text Jesus uses questions about the resurrection to teach about what comes next after He changes the history of mankind by His coming death and resurrection.

Revelation 7:9-17; Psalm 149; 1 John 3:1-3; Matthew 5:1-12 In a material-centric world, you are what you appear or what you possess or what you have done. In a world created by God, the material was caused by the immaterial Word of God, so that what is real is whatever God’s speech calls real. John is unbashful then in saying that we are really children of God, not because it is obvious or apparen...

Revelation 14:6-7; Psalm 46; Romans 3:19-28; John 8:31-36 Jesus did not think teaching show coddle the mind and make people comfortable with themselves. He taught that knowing God in truth required a constant reformation of the pleasant lies that we always and effortlessly find so attractive.

Genesis 32:22–30; Psalm 121; 2 Timothy 3:14—4:5; Luke 18:1-8 What is prayer and what’s the benefit of praying without ceasing? Prayer fuels persistence so that in the face of heartlessness you do not lose heart.

Ruth 1:1-19a; Psalm 111; 2 Timothy 2:1-13; Luke 17:11-19 Why is it-at least here--that 9 times out of 10 enjoyment of God’s great gifts does not lead one to a desire to enjoy the Giver’s ongoing presence? The text does not worry at all about the 9 but rather celebrates the one who refused to be content with a foretaste of restored health when he could have, by being with Jesus, the whole feast.