Sunday's Readings

2 Epiphany I Sam. 3:1-10 (11-20) Ps. 139:1-5, 12-17 I Cor. 6:12-20 John 1:43-51 "You did not choose me, but I chose you" (John 15:16). These words of Jesus challenge the idea that we accept Jesus Christ ... Read more...

1 Epiphany Gen. 1:1-5 Ps. 29 Acts 19:1-7 Mark 1:4-11 Jesus Christ came to his own (John 1:11). In the fullness of time, he was revealed to the Gentiles, the whole human world, and, lest we forget, he was... Read more...

We have been blessed, in Christ, by all that the Father gives to the Son, which is an inexhaustible treasure. The gifts of grace and adoption and fullness are rooted in God’s eternal and inscrutable will.  

Though dead in our sin and lost in our rejection of Christ, Christ continues to pursue us in judgment and mercy.

John the Baptist said, “I am not the Messiah, I am not, no!” Similarly, we are not the cause of our own salvation. No. We are witnesses, vessels, New Beings. Purged of sin and born again, we shine like the brightness of the sun.

For a full 70 years, the people of God wept and hoped for a return to their land and their temple.

God has come in the calling of a people, in their journey to freedom and responsibility under the law and as a nation.

The prophet’s promise of a return to the land of Israel is, in Christian terms, a foreshadowing of the reign of Christ over all the peoples of the earth.

The wrong kind of fear and an incorrect understanding of God can foster a life of trepidation and caution, a life devoid of prudent risk and joy.

Keep awake, Jesus says. Be prepared. Waiting is not only the wisdom of carrying extra oil but the process of purgation. Patience is the pain of being stripped and made new.