Come & See
Sunday Gospel Reflections
When Andrew met Jesus, he knew that Jesus was the Messiah. That's why Andrew invited his brother Simon (later called Peter) to come and see for himself.
Come and see who we are.
Come and see God's goodness.
Come and see how we love.
It’s the Manure That Makes Things Grow
It’s the manure that makes things grow. It’s not our clean, beautiful perfection, our strengths, our places where we’re competent. It’s the times where things were hard, impossible even. It’s those places where we couldn’t find a way out, where all we could do was slog and struggle and be stuck. It’s the heartbreak that made me grow. If there is a shortcut to heaven, it happens in adversity, when we take the heartbreak of our lives and open it all up to the light of God.
Are We Willing to Seek Refuge in Christ?
The image of a mother hen gathering her chicks beautifully illustrates God’s nurturing care and the deep grief when His children refuse to come under His protection. The question remains: Are we willing to seek refuge in Christ?
Being Perfect Isn’t the Christian Story
Being perfect isn’t the Christian story. If you look through all of our scriptures, there was only one who managed to pull through without sinning and that’s Jesus. The rest of us, the rest of the heroes of the Bible, the rest of the saints, every single one comes off as not the sharpest knife in the drawer, full of shadow and sin. Every single one.
Behold the Glory and Goodness of God
God calls us into lives that point to God’s glory and so often we resist that call and hide behind veils. But know this: God created you, all of you, in God’s image and to God’s own glory.
Love Your Enemies
It’s a long process, learning to love our enemies. It takes time, a long time. And I don’t know about y’all, but there are a few people that I’ve forgiven, gotten almost to the love part and then something shifts in my life and I have to start the work all over again. This work is never over. Loving our enemies takes a really long time and there are no shortcuts. It also helps if you have a good therapist. Just sayin’.
Blessings Or Woes?
Today we’re being asked to re-think what we consider blessings and what we know to be woes.
The world and all of it’s logics isn’t the final story. It’s not what we are living for. We’re here because we’ve heard the voice of Jesus call to us. We’re here because we know there is another way. There is a way where the meek inherit the earth, where the poor are blessed, where those who weep will laugh and where those who laugh now will mourn and weep.
When You Become That Consolation
When you become that consolation, not just to yourself but to so many others, your light shines like the sun. We see you sitting in these pews and your very presence consoles us. You are making a difference and we notice.
We are Not Alone and We Belong to Each Other!
We all belong to one another. And I mean the Church is the body of Christ in the world, but it's even better than that. All of us, living in the world, all of us belong to one another.
The Scriptures — On Their Own— Don’t Tell Us Who God Is.
The Bible by itself is just a book, and the words of that book—by themselves—are not the Living Word. But when we read Scripture alongside the Church’s Worship and Service, and in light of everything Reason tells us about the Universe, then the scriptures become the Living Word. As the bread is the Sacrament of Christ’s Body and the wine the Sacrament of his Blood, so the anthology of strange texts we call the Bible is the Sacrament of the Living Word, but only in the power of the Spirit, the Lord the Giver of Life!
Why Does Jesus Need to Be Baptized?
Friends, I will admit to you that, since I was a child, I have always felt just a little bit nervous when reading the Gospel passages that recount the baptism of Jesus. I have a distinct memory of sitting in church — I can’t have been older than 11 — and listening to Pastor Ron preach about how Jesus insisted that John baptize him and thinking to myself, “Why does Jesus need to be baptized?”