September 9, 2018 In foreign territory, Jesus is confronted by a Gentile woman who asks him to cure her daughter. In this conversation with an exceedingly polite, deferential, distressed mother, Jesus seems to be a pitiful caricature of his compassionate self. Besides changing his position on clean and unclean, i.e., this woman is a Gentile […]
September 2, 2018 Back in Mark’s Gospel, we find Jesus confronted by scribes and Pharisees over his lack of practicing traditional purity rituals (laws). The upsurge in identity politics we’re experiencing this summer feels a lot like the atmosphere of antagonism and the culture of suspicion in which Jesus and these capitol city elites squared […]
August 26, 2018 The end of John’s telling of Jesus’ feeding 5,000 doesn’t end well. Like their ancestors who murmured all the while God kept their newly freed selves fed and watered in the desert, many of these recently fed folk also murmured. More, when Jesus said, “I am the living bread which came down […]
August 19, 2018 Jesus, still disputing with folks who’ve had their fill of bread says, “Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them.” (Jn 6:56). “To abide,” means, what your heart is set on. As Jesus sees it, “to abide,” means to have total trust in, to […]
August 12, 2018 In this third slice of John’s 6th chapter, we hear Jesus and some of those who’d followed him across the lake in a conversation where they, too, are talking passed each other. It’s a bit reminiscent of the conversation Jesus has with Nicodemus, when the whole “born again” issue is hashed out […]
August 5, 2018 Still in John’s Gospel’s 6th chapter – this Sunday, we’ll encounter the crowd Jesus fed previously. Here, they follow him asking for more – more food and more proof Jesus is connected to God the way he says he is. The crowd, however, appears, at best, to be staring at the rearview […]
