Welcome to the second week of Advent. As is our practice during this season, we sit in what we call the “waiting rooms of Christmas”: Apocalypse, Wilderness, Prison, and Public Disgrace. These unsettling rooms mirror the lived experiences of vulnerable communities and the simmering anxieties of our world today. Each waiting room yields its own gift. This week, we join John the Baptist in the wilderness, where the unquenchable fire of God’s love is kindled.

Welcome to the first week of Advent. It’s a season of waiting for the Christ who is always coming at an “unexpected hour.” As is our practice during Advent, we will sit in what we call the “waiting rooms of Christmas.” Together, we will wait for the always-coming Christ. Fair warning, these are difficult rooms to occupy: apocalypse, wilderness, prison and public disgrace. As always, Advent begins in the Apocalypse…

Welcome to the final week of the liturgical year — “Christ the King” Sunday. The feast was established in 1925 amid global power struggles, as the era of Monarchies gave way to the rise of nationalism and secularism. Even Vatican City had become its own sovereign state. So what did the Church intend by calling Christ “King”? Was it an attempt to reassert its power over the nations, or to redefine it in light of Jesus’ self-giving love? Either way, the royal metaphor can be challenging for modern ears.

Welcome to the 23rd Sunday after Pentecost. In this week’s Gospel, people are marveling at the temple, the shining centerpiece of God’s presence. It’s dazzling. But Jesus isn’t dazzled. He sees what’s coming: “Not one stone will be left upon another.” And within a generation it was true — not only the building, but the whole system it represented came crashing down in 66 CE.

Welcome to the 22nd Sunday after Pentecost. For the last several weeks, Jesus has been traveling from Galilee to Jerusalem, by way of Samaria. In this week’s Gospel, he finally arrives in Jerusalem, where he is confronted by the Sadducees. Unlike the Pharisees, who accepted the prophets and the wisdom texts that taught there is an afterlife, the Sadducees only recognized the first five books of the Bible (Torah), which don’t mention it.

This week’s passage marks the end of what’s often called the “Travel Narrative” in Luke (Luke 9-19). For ten chapters, Luke has traced Jesus and his disciples’ walk from Galilee to Jerusalem, by way of Samaria — through hundreds of years of bad blood. It’s here, in contested space, that Jesus perfects what may be his greatest contribution as a communicator: his gift as a storyteller.

Welcome to the 20th Sunday after Pentecost. In this week’s Gospel, a Pharisee and a tax collector go up to the temple to pray. Sounds like the beginning of a joke, and maybe it is.

One man stands tall, praying not so much to God as to himself. His words drip with comparison…

Welcome to the Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost. In this week’s text, Jesus tells a story designed to embolden the disciples to “pray and not lose heart.” He tells of a widow who pleads her case before an unjust judge who, in the end, grants her request, if only because she wears him out…

Welcome to the Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost. In our Gospel this week, Jesus heals ten lepers. Nine of them go to the priest for further inspection hoping to be declared “clean” and thus cleared to be reintegrated into the life of the community.

But the leper who is a Samaritan cannot be cleansed of his Samaritan-ness. He has no place in the community, even when cured of leprosy. And so he “turns back” to Jesus’ fledgling community of outcasts and “gives thanks”…

Welcome to the Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost. This week’s Gospel begins with a desperate plea from the disciples: “Increase our faith!” No wonder. Just before this, Jesus tells them forgiveness must flow seven times in a single day. Elsewhere he says seventy times seven. Whoa! Who can forgive like that?

At first glance, Jesus seems to belittle their concerns…

Welcome to the Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost. This week’s Gospel is the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. One dines like royalty behind the gates of privilege. The other rots outside, longing for scraps. The only ones who cross the threshold are the house dogs, who lick Lazarus’ wounds with more compassion than their master shows.

But here’s the twist: Jesus gives the poor man a name — Lazarus — and leaves the rich man anonymous. In Scripture, names mean relationship, dignity, belonging. God remembers the forgotten. The “blessed” man has no name…

Welcome to the Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost. This week’s Gospel is one of Jesus’ strangest parables — a story about a dishonest manager who cooks the books and then gets praised for it. What’s going on here?

At first glance, the manager looks like a cheat. He reduces debts behind his master’s back, cutting a hundred jugs of oil down to fifty, a hundred containers of wheat down to eighty. But if we peek behind the curtain, something else comes into focus…

Welcome to the Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost. This week’s text goes straight to the heart of the Gospel. And it sets up camp in the most toxic of places: fear and resentment. The Pharisees and scribes are filled with it, chewing on their grievances like a cow chewing its cud. They grumble: “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.” Jesus responds with two stories about parties.

In the first, a shepherd foolishly leaves ninety-nine sheep in the wilderness to go after one that’s lost. The ninety-nine are left exposed while the shepherd seeks out the one. Who risks ninety-nine for the sake of one? It’s bad math…

Welcome to the Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost. In this week’s text, Jesus’ popularity is building and the momentum of his grassroots movement is on the rise. It’s a perfect time to cash in. Instead, Jesus speaks a series of hard words designed to awaken the “large crowd” to what’s really happening. He ends with these words, “None of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.” This must have seemed like an odd request, given that the crowd Jesus attracted had little in the way of personal possessions…

Welcome to the Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost. Once again, Jesus is reimagining the Sabbath in light of God’s love. Last week, Jesus right-sized the Sabbath bed for a woman in need of rest. This week, he resets the Sabbath table to include the excluded in need of nourishment. He does this at the house of a prominent religious leader hosting the Sabbath meal…

Not observed 2026 Gospel Lectionary Text Matthew 7:21-29 7:21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the…

Matthew 6:24-34

24 “No one can serve two masters, for a slave will either hate the one and love the other or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.

25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?

26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?

27 And which of you by worrying can add a single hour to your span of life?

28 And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin,

29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these.

30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith?

31 Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’

32 For it is the gentiles who seek all these things, and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.

33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

34 “So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.

Welcome to the Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost. In this week’s Gospel, Jesus heals a woman who has suffered for eighteen years from a spirit that has stolen her ability to stand upright. The leader of the synagogue responds with indignation, aghast that Jesus would heal on the Sabbath. The bitter irony is thick: the Sabbath — meant to bring healing and restoration — has become an obstacle to both…

Matthew 5:38-48
5:38
“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’

5:39
But I say to you: Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also,

5:40
and if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, give your coat as well,

5:41
and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile.

5:42
Give to the one who asks of you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you.

5:43
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’

5:44
But I say to you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,

5:45
so that you may be children of your Father in heaven, for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.

5:46
For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?

5:47
And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the gentiles do the same?

5:48
Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

John 1:(1-9), 10-18
1:1
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

1:2
He was in the beginning with God.

1:3
All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being

1:4
in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.

1:5
The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overtake it.

1:6
There was a man sent from God whose name was John.

1:7
He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him.

1:8
He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light.

1:9
The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.

1:10
He was in the world, and the world came into being through him, yet the world did not know him.

1:11
He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him.

1:12
But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God,

1:13
who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.

1:14
And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.

1:15
(John testified to him and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.'”)

1:16
From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.

1:17
The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

1:18
No one has ever seen God. It is the only Son, himself God, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.

Welcome to the Tenth Sunday after Pentecost. Last week, Jesus said, “Do not be afraid.” This week, he talks about casting fire on the earth and bringing division. What happened? Did Jesus change his mind? Or are we being invited to change how we see?

If our image of God is violent, we might see this as a threat. But if we look with Easter eyes, something else comes into view…

Welcome to the Ninth Sunday after Pentecost. This week’s passage begins with a shot of courage — “Do not be afraid.” It ends with a warning about a thief in the night. In between lies the not-so-hidden treasure of God’s delight: a joyful, complete, continuous and unconditional self-giving love that overflows. This is the “unfailing treasure” at the heart of reality. And in discovering this treasure, we locate our own hearts…

Not observed 2026 Gospel Lectionary Text Matthew 7:21-29 7:21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the…

Not observed 2026 Gospel Lectionary Text Matthew 6:24-34 6:24 “No one can serve two masters, for a slave will either…

Welcome to the Eighth Sunday after Pentecost. In our Gospel, a man asks Jesus to settle a dispute over family inheritance. Jesus refuses to play judge between the man and his brother. Instead, he tells a story that holds up a relational mirror. He shifts the focus from “stuff” to the relational dynamic that has the man and his brother locked in rivalry. Jesus knows: the thing is never really about the thing, it’s always about the relationship that makes the thing desirable…

Welcome to the Seventh Sunday after Pentecost. In today’s Gospel, the disciples see Jesus pray and ask him to show them how. Perhaps his prayer is different from what they’ve known — not heavy with shame or striving, but light with love. It awakens something: “Lord, teach us to pray.”

So he does. Not with theory, but by modeling…

Welcome to the Sixth Sunday after Pentecost. In today’s Gospel, Jesus enters the home of Martha and Mary, who were outsiders in the broader culture, but insiders in Jesus’ community. Luke tells us Martha is “distracted by many tasks.” Mary, by contrast, breaks from the culturally acceptable role of women and sits at Jesus’ feet.

Martha is frustrated. She addresses Jesus with a thinly veiled question that’s probably more like a comment: “Don’t you care that my sister has left me to do all the work?” You can hear the sting in her voice: the loneliness, resentment, the desire to be seen. Jesus gently redirects: “Martha, Martha…you are worried and distracted by many things. One thing is needed…”

In today’s Gospel, a lawyer stands to test Jesus: “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” It sounds like an honest question, but it’s really an attempt to justify the limits of his own goodness. “Who is my neighbor?” he asks — hoping to draw a line.

Jesus responds with perhaps the most well-known story in all of Scripture. A story that messes with the moral calculus of the lawyer and all those trying to justify themselves through their own goodness project. In the process, what gets shattered are not only the limits of goodness, but also the acceptable agents of grace…

Welcome to the Fourth Sunday after Pentecost. Last week, Jesus was rejected by a Samaritan village. James and John were quick to seek vengeance: “Shall we call down fire from heaven?”

This week, Jesus goes back to the drawing board. He sends out more messengers, but this time with clear instructions. No weapons. No money. No backup plan. He sends them out in small groups, two by two — exposed, dependent, and vulnerable — “like lambs among wolves.” On the surface, these instructions are absurd. He’s giving the competitive advantage to the wolves, who are already wired to dine on stray lambs…

Welcome to the third week after Pentecost. In this week’s text, Jesus turns toward Jerusalem. On the way, he takes time to address some unresolved family matters. The rift dates back to 722 B.C., when the Assyrians invaded the northern kingdom of Israel. The Samaritans, descendants of intermarriage with the oppressor, were seen by most Jews as impure — half-breeds and infidels…

Welcome to the Second Sunday after Pentecost. This week, Jesus meets a man tormented by a legion of demons — naked, chained, isolated, crying out among the tombs. His suffering is undeniable, and his healing is dramatic. But what if the real sickness wasn’t just in the man?…

Welcome to Trinity Sunday. In this week’s text, we see in Jesus the heart of a teacher who has so many things he wants to share with his disciples. But how does one teach the inner dynamic of God’s joy-filled, self-donating relationality — one that functions more like a dance than a doctrine? Thankfully, Jesus spares his disciples a theological explanation. He knows that what humans want most is experience, not explanation. And so, he opts to demonstrate his love rather than dissect it…

Welcome to Pentecost Sunday. It’s tempting to think of the Holy Spirit as a kind of consolation prize — a divine stand-in now that Jesus is gone. But that’s not how Jesus sees it. In this week’s Gospel, he describes the Spirit as God’s Presence — no longer bound to one body, but dwelling within and among us forever, teaching us everything, and reminding us of all he said. In fact, “It is better for you that I go,” Jesus tells us elsewhere (John 16:7)…

Welcome to the seventh and final Sunday of Easter. Jesus has been preparing his disciples for a certain kind of Presence — one that is available to all people, everywhere, all at once. The historical Jesus occupied one body in one place at one time. But the Spirit of the risen Christ is poured out on all flesh. This means that we (all of creation) become “the Body of Christ,” in whom and through whom God is present to us…

Welcome to the Sixth Sunday of Easter. We are nearing the end of the 50-day celebration called Eastertide. Jesus has been preparing his disciples for his “going away.” His ascension makes room for a new kind of Presence made possible by the pouring out of his Spirit. What was once revealed through the sign of one body, in a specific time and place, is now revealed through the sign of the collective. Jesus is preparing the disciples to become what they have received — the Body of Christ…

Welcome to the Fifth week of Easter. This week’s text is situated between two betrayals. Judas has just left to complete his treachery, and Peter’s denial waits in the wings. It’s here that Jesus speaks of a “new commandment” — to “love one another as I have loved you.”

The content of the commandment isn’t new, but the source is…

Welcome to the Fourth Week of Easter. This week, we hear Jesus say, “My sheep hear my voice.” It’s a voice made fully audible only in the resurrection. Of course, we catch faint whispers of it in Jesus’ life and death, but it’s only in the light of Easter that we hear it clearly. And so, with Easter ears, we return to the words of Jesus and hear them afresh…

Welcome to the Third Sunday of Easter. This week we find Jesus hosting breakfast around a charcoal fire — echoing the courtyard fire where Peter denied him three times. But rather than a scene of public shaming, this encounter invites us to witness restoration. […]

Welcome to the second week of Easter. Jesus enters the locked room that entombs the disciples. It’s from within their experience of fear and shame that He invites the fledgling community to imitate His life. […]

Welcome to Holy Week. Our text for Easter begins where the crucifixion ends, in darkness. The Gospel of John is evoking images of Genesis at the beginning when the earth was formless and void, and darkness covered the land. […]

Welcome to Palm Sunday, Jesus’ celebrated entry into Jerusalem. It is a confusing celebration. The crowd shouts “Hosanna, Hosanna” this week, and “Crucify him, Crucify him” next week. We are left to wonder, “Is this a victory march or a funeral procession?” […]

Welcome to the Fifth Sunday of Lent. In this week’s Gospel, Mary anoints Jesus’ feet with costly perfume. Judas — who will soon betray Jesus for thirty pieces of silver — grumbles about this “waste,” claiming it could’ve been given to the poor. […]

Welcome to the Fourth Sunday of Lent. Today, we encounter one of the most beloved stories in Scripture — the Parable of the Prodigal (wasteful & reckless) Son. […]

Welcome to the third Sunday of Lent. This week’s text begins with two stories of victims who died tragically through no fault of their own. In both cases, Jesus asks the crowd a rhetorical question: Were the victims of these tragedies worse “sinners” than anyone else? […]

Welcome to the Second Week of Lent. In this week’s Gospel, Jesus presents a stark contrast between Herod as a predatory “fox” and Himself as a mother “hen” who is prey. The image of the hen gathering chicks under her wings may warm the heart, but it’s hardly a comfort in the face of real threats. […]

This Ash Wednesday we step into Lent, 40 days of companionship with Jesus to the cross. This annual pilgrimage is becoming an increasingly rare but much-needed tonic in an age where the line between genuine self-reflection and virtue signalling is increasingly blurred. […]

Welcome to the final week before Lent — Transfiguration Sunday. This week’s Gospel calls to mind Moses’ cloud-covered meeting with God on the mountain. He descends with the Ten Commandments, only to be met by “the noise of war in the camp” (Ex. 32:17) — a fearful people who turned to the golden calf in their anxiety. […]

Welcome to the 7th Sunday after Epiphany. In this week’s text, Jesus calls us to love our enemies — the heart of the Gospel. It sounds nice in theory, but it’s rarely popular in practice. […]

Welcome to the 6th Sunday after Epiphany. This week, we join the crowd and disciples as Jesus preaches His most famous sermon. Notice that in Luke’s version, Jesus doesn’t teach from above the crowd on a holy mountaintop as He does in Matthew. […]

Welcome to the 5th Sunday after Epiphany. Last week, Jesus’ refusal to play the scapegoating game nearly got Him lynched. This week, He leaves the synagogue to preach on the shores of Lake Gennesaret — where chaos still brews, just in a different form. […]

Welcome to the fourth Sunday after Epiphany. Last week, we saw the start of Jesus’ first sermon. Everything seemed to be going great; people were in awe of His gracious words. This week, things take a turn and it doesn’t end well. Jesus is driven out of town — like some kind of demon — by a furious crowd ready to hurl Him off a cliff. […]

Welcome to the third Sunday after Epiphany. Last week, we witnessed Jesus’ first miracle. This week Jesus preaches his first sermon. It starts with a bang! […]

Welcome to the 2nd Sunday after the Epiphany. This week we’re fellow guests at a wedding in Cana. Jesus serves up 120 gallons of the best wine. This is not a quaint tea party. It is a joy filled love feast. […]

Welcome to the first Sunday after Epiphany. This week, we find ourselves in the baptismal waters with Jesus, undergoing his baptismal blessing: “You are my child, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.” […]

Welcome to the second week of Christmas, as we continue to celebrate the mystery of Emmanuel, God with us.

The Incarnation of the Word is indeed a revelation, a dawning of light “for those walking in darkness” (Isaiah 9:2). But what is being revealed, and what has arrived? Certainly not the invention of some new reality — as if God has been absent among us and now has shown up. […]

Welcome to Christmas week. We’ve spent Advent exploring the Waiting Rooms of Christmas: apocalypse, wilderness, the doorstep of the promiseland, and finally, with Mary in her “lowly state.” Each space calls forth the most precious gift — Emmanuel, God with us — who transforms the waiting room, the waiter, and even the waiting itself by His presence. […]

Luke 2:1-14, (15-20)
In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered.

Welcome to the fourth week of Advent. We’ve been occupying the waiting rooms of Christmas. The first week of Advent, we waited in the apocalypse. The second week, we waited in the wilderness. The third week, we waited outside the promiseland. This week we wait with Mary in her “lowly state.” […]

Welcome to the third week of Advent. We’ve been occupying the difficult but transformational waiting rooms of Christmas. In the first week of Advent, we waited in the apocalypse. In the second week, we waited in the wilderness. This week we are still in the wilderness, but thanks to an important detail recorded in the Gospel of John, we find ourselves waiting outside the promiseland, in “Bethany across the Jordan.” […]

Welcome to the second week of Advent. We are in the waiting rooms of Christmas. Having waited last week in the apocalypse, we now find ourselves in the wilderness with John the Baptist. Here, he echoes the words of the prophet Isaiah, proclaiming, “Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.” (Isaiah 40:3-5). […]

Welcome to the first week of Advent. It’s a season of waiting. We wait for the coming Christ who is always “drawing near.” Over the next four weeks, we will sit in what we call the “waiting rooms of Christmas.” These rooms are not easy to inhabit, but when occupied with open hearts they are transformational. […]

Welcome to Holy Week. Our text for Easter begins where the crucifixion ends, in darkness. The Gospel of John is evoking images of Genesis at the beginning when the earth was formless and void, and darkness covered the land…