The parable of the self-righteous Pharisee and the repentant tax collector. At face value this is how we would tend to title and interpret the parable from our Gospel reading for this morning. Luke has told this parable in a way that encourages us to identify with the tax collector who demonstrates the positive Christian […]

In the past few years, I’ve found myself frequently turning to the books of Amy-Jill Levine, a New Testament scholar and orthodox Jewish woman. Perhaps because she doesn’t carry the baggage of 2000 years of Christian tradition on her shoulders, I find that her scholarship often gives me new eyes with which to see stories […]

Luke is a Gospel full of parables. The parable of the Good Samaritan and the parable of the Prodigal Son are perhaps the two best known of all his parables. And all of the parables in the Gospel of Luke share a common element. No matter the plot, all of the parables have a twist. […]

Coming back from a four-month sabbatical to this Gospel passage from Luke for this morning is like trying to run a 5K after not running at all for four months. It was more than a little painful and I discovered that some of my sermon-writing muscles had grown a little weak. But sometimes you just […]

There he was a man who could not walk surrounded by other people with various impairments, lying by the pool of Bethesda for thirty-eight years. Thirty-eight years. That is a really long time. Every day, he watched others enter the water, water that was believed to have healing power when stirred by an angel. But […]

I recently finished reading a book by a sociologist of religion, Rodney Stark, titled The Rise of Christianity: A Sociologist Reconsiders History. In this book, Stark seeks to answer the question: “How did a tiny obscure messianic movement from the edge of the Roman Empire dislodge classical paganism and become the dominant faith of western […]

“So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah tell us plainly.” Jesus answered, “I have told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name testify to me.” John 10:24-25 Our Gospel reading for […]

The final year of my master’s program in Clinical Mental Health Counseling involved an internship in clinical settings. I served part of my hours at a grief counseling center helping to run two grief support groups. I thought I already knew a lot about grief through my many years as an Episcopal priest, but I […]

As you well know, Easter, unlike Christmas, is a moveable holy day. This year it is on April 20, but next year it will be on April 5. If you have ever perused the back of the Book of Common Prayer during a boring sermon you will find a complex table and formula that is […]

Our many years of observing Palm Sunday with the waving of branches and shouts of hosanna have made us so familiar with the story that we have perhaps lost a sense of what is so odd about it. For the story of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem is a strange story. We also forget that […]