Do You Trust Jesus?                   In this week’s Gospel Reading, Jesus invites the woman at the well into a relationship of trust. He is a Jew—the sort of person she expects to look down on her because she is a Samaritan. What’s more, he knows about her past. She has been through marital struggles. She,…

For the second Sunday of Lent, we move from   Jesus’ retreat to the desert to his Transfiguration. On the second Sunday of Lent each year, we hear the story of Jesus’ Transfiguration. The story of Jesus’ Transfiguration is told in the three Synoptic Gospels: Matthew, Mark, and Luke. In each of those Gospels, the Transfiguration…

Make God’s Story our Story Today’s readings appear to center on the theme of temptation. The gospel tells of Jesus facing three prompts from the devil. And while temptation is a key theme across these scripture passages, it’s worth revisiting the traditional assumptions about the precise temptations. Perhaps the temptation is to believe the lie…

I have Not Come to Abolish the Law but to  Fulfill It                   Today’s reading is part one and deals with the Law. Part two deals with worship and religious practice and contains the Lord’s Prayer. Part three deals with trusting God and deeds of loving service to our neighbor. When the Messiah brings the…

Be the Salt of the Earth and the Light of the World                Following upon the teaching of the Beatitudes, Jesus uses the now familiar metaphors of salt and light to describe the life of discipleship. We take salt and light for granted in our society, but these commodities were more precious in ancient cultures. Just…

Christ Has no Body but Yours                The gospel reading for this week includes the beatitudes as told by the book of Matthew. These beautiful promises and blessings are the foundation of the ethos of Christian teaching on humility, justice, compassion, and love. The beatitudes are a sense of comfort for many Christians.  Christ has…

Jesus   Calls His First Disciples                Today’s Gospel describes the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry. When Jesus returns from the desert, he hears that John has been arrested. Matthew wants to show that Jesus is the fulfillment of the prophecies given to the people of Israel, and he refers to Isaiah to do so. Isaiah…

The Gospel this Sunday serves as a bracing wake-up call as we return once more into Ordinary Time. After the merriment of Christmas — packages and parties, carols and cooking, broken toys and broken diets — we get down to the hard work of ordinary life. There are lights to unplug, tinsel to toss. We…

Why would Jesus, without sin, want or need to be baptized? Here we see that God is not a distant God but rather comes to our lives, our wounds, our fears, and even our hopes. God enters the spaces where we feel abandoned, overwhelmed, or unworthy. God does not abandon us, but enters the waters…

Even When the World is Grim, Let Christ be Your Joy                   Today’s Gospel invite us to be open to wisdom from unexpected places. In the first century, the Magi were people whom most Jews would regard as hostile. They were pagan sorcerers, yet in Matthew’s story they understood the signs and sought after Jesus.…