Worth Doing Badly

The Sabbath was set aside to rest and to remind us that that God’s Word was the first and final cause of creation, so that human existence is fundamentally a gift and not an achievement.

Salvation is Christ’s gracious gift, and yet Jesus commands striving because salvation is not an anaesthetic that makes us passive, but the energy that desires evermore life.

Jesus’ peace is not the fragile and futile earthly peace of passively getting along by giving into the most selfish and powerful. His peace gives us the fire of His desire for the eternal and the sword to cut through the illusions, lies and deceptions that distract us from way whose end is peace ever after.

Do not be anxious! Anxiety inevitably unmasks every illusion of a good life without God and His promise of eternal life though Jesus Christ.

Greed is a quasi-religious trust that the good life is given by material wealth. Jesus told the Parable of the Rich Fool to aid His disciples to repentance for being greedy fools. This story is a gift to the forgiven and who are free to fully face the truth of temptation.

“Lord, teach us to pray.” Seeing Jesus pray, the disciples asked Jesus to teach or apprentice them in prayer. Prayer was not understood as coming naturally like breathing but is a thing that is learned by persistent attention to God’s truth.

“One thing is necessary” (Jesus in Luke 10:42). Martha characterizes contemporary anxiety and distraction, while Mary characterizes the freedom from anxiety needed to give thoughtful attention to the truth.

The Good Samaritan. By revealing the unmerited goodness of a Samaritan, Jesus prepared His hearers to recognize and appreciate the goodness of Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection as God’s unmerited mercy rescuing the world victimized by evil.

Jesus cautioned His followers not to rejoice in their success but to remember their place in heaven. The promise of heaven would free them to continue to live as harvesters, in prayer, in traveling light while embracing life among the wolves and being continually surprised by unexpected hospitality.

As Jesus aimed to die for sinners in Jerusalem, the disciples wanted to destroy sinners with fire. This ridiculous misunderstanding became the occasion for Jesus to teach what following him means.

The Gospel for the second Sunday after Pentecost is about demonic possession, which means it is meant to teach us about the alternative, that is, the Holy Spirit’s indwelling.

Time and death are transformed because the Trinity is love. If God was one person, love would be self-love first and foremost. If God is Triune, then love has eternally been love for the other and not the self. The essentially sacrificial nature of love was definitively expressed in God’s giving His beloved Son to die for the world.

Jesus promised the coming of the Holy Spirit who would continue His spiritual salvation which would prove to be more real in giving more life than any worldly salvation. The Spirit would give that peace that troubled, anxiety-ridden hearts desire and which is a peace that the world cannot give. This peace is real because it is personal in repairing each person’s broken relationship with God by res...

The Ascension placed an exclamation point on Christ’s work of salvation. Once the Resurrection put life back on track, time again measured life’s promised ascent to ever–increasing life rather than measuring the descent to inevitable death.

Jesus claims that praying "in His name" effects real this-worldly peace.

“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now”. (John 16:12) Christ’s unbearable truth promised to free us from ourselves so that we can love God and love others.

The Good Shepherd’s presence reminds us that we need not fear lasting harm. Not only do the Good Shepherd’s rod and staff discipline us from self–destruction, they also defend us from forces that can inflict hurt but not harm.

The texts consider Peter and Paul’s conversions. Con-version literally means to unite (con) with the truth (veritas) that the resurrection’s transfigured Christ’s crucifixion. The converted then confesses--"fess up to"--the truth which meant confessing one’s guilt and confessing one’s gratitude for God’s grace.

Addressing Thomas’ doubts, Jesus said that peace was the upshot of His resurrection.

From creation to resurrection, the truth is that reality bends to Jesus’ words. Remaining real requires we remember what He said.

Luke 23 lists various failed attempts to legally criminalize Jesus. Why this focus? Because the crucifixion displays God’s eternal love that silences the law’s accusations.

Jesus Christ predicted that His enemies’ plan to kill him would succeed, but that His death would have a very different outcome than they planned. The cross did not end Christ’s claim on His creation. It rather laid the cornerstone of the new creation.

A person is authorized by repentance to face the consequences of his sin without the threat of condemnation. Repentance gives us the liberty of the prodigal son to "come back to himself" and that is cause for joyful celebration rather than moral condemnation.

Lent is a penitential season aimed to teach us repentance. This teaching revolves around Jesus’ saying "unless we repent". With these 3 words Jesus shows how repentance changes our understanding and experience of suffering and death.

Jesus dismissively ignored Herod’s threats by naming him the "fox". Herod called himself "great"; Jesus countered by giving him the name of the diminutive fox who is nevertheless able to cause chaos in the hen house.