Being Christian
Figuring it Out as We Go – Br. Jamie Nelson
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Br. Jamie Nelson
Today’s reading from the eighteenth chapter of Acts paints a vivid picture of the networks of relationship by which early Christian communities grew and developed, and invites us to think about how we embody that growth today.
It is easy for us present-day humans to get access to basically everything we might want to know about being Christian. We have Bibles at our fingertips, which collect the teachings of Jesus and stories about his early followers. We can easily look up the history of the Christian tradition and find out what two millennia of scholars have taught about matters of doctrine.
That was not so for the early followers of Jesus. Their growth in faith came out of relationships, not from mass-market published books or YouTube videos by popular influencers. It was person-to-person human connection and mentorship that fed the growth of first-century Christianity. Read More
If One is Good, Two is Better – Br. James Koester
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Br. James Koester
The Fifth Sunday of Easter
One of the fun things about Jerusalem is the multiplicity of holy sites scattered around the Old City. What is even more fun is that there are multiple sites commemorating the same thing. There are, for instance, two upper rooms: the Upper Room, up,[1] and the Upper Room, down.[2] In one you go upstairs to enter. In the other you descend a flight of stairs. There are two places that commemorate the resurrection: the Church of the Resurrection[3] within the Old City, and just outside, the Garden Tomb.[4] Clearly the pilgrim industry operates on the principle that if one is good, two is better. Read More
Faithfully Lived Lives – Br. Lain Wilson
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Br. Lain Wilson
George
I have in my cell a small icon depicting an armored and caped George, astride a white horse, driving his lance down into the belly of a dragon. It’s a familiar and beloved depiction of a familiar and beloved saint.
Even leaving the dragon aside, this depiction of George places him in a kind of timeless medieval fantasy. This creates a good deal of critical and imaginative distance for us. Without translating his iconography to our modern visual idiom, George retains much of the romantic glow that he acquired in his association with chivalry.
Compare this to today’s texts. In hearing the plain, modern English, the promise of forcible dispossession or the hope that God will “strike all my enemies across the face” (Psalm 3:7) can make us distinctly uncomfortable. These words so easily enter into conversation with what we see in the world around us now. Read More
Reacting to God – Br. Jack Crowley
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Br. Jack Crowley
The disciples saw Jesus walking on the sea . . . and they were terrified. That’s one of my favorite lines in scripture. I love it not only for the beautiful image of Jesus walking on water, but for the disciples’ reaction to Jesus. Personally, I find the image of Jesus walking on water to be one of the most beautiful images in scripture and what I love most is that the disciples’ initial reaction to this beautiful image is absolute terror.
I often ask myself how could this be? I imagine if I saw Jesus walking on water across the Charles River coming towards me, how would I react? I’d probably stop and stare, wide eyed and open mouthed. From there I have no idea what would happen.
The point I’m trying to make here is we never really know how we are going to react to God, especially when God is at work in the particular circumstances of our life. When we see Jesus crossing the waters of our own little rivers inside our minds, it will probably scare us at first. We all have our own little boat we are trying to navigate and then to see this man walk sure footedly when we are trying our best just to stay afloat, well you can see why people’s reactions to God vary all the way from violence, indifference, to worship. Read More
God of the Leftovers – Br. Jamie Nelson
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Br. Jamie Nelson
Opinions about serving leftover food can be polarizing. Many people enjoy eating leftovers, and many people just don’t.
Where do you stand? Are you someone who likes dining on a remix of last night’s dinner, or do containers of leftover food tend to sit forlornly in the far back corner of your fridge until they’re only suited for the compost?
Based on the story we heard just now, Jesus sounds like he belongs to Team Leftovers. Here’s why I say that. Read More
Palm Sunday: A Clarion Call, Not a Reenactment – Br. Curtis Almquist
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Br. Curtis Almquist
Palm Sunday
Philippians 2:5-11
John 12:20-33
When I was a young boy, I hated lima beans.
Now I love lima beans.
But I have always loved my mother more than I love lima beans.
Strong words – hate, love – used hyperbolically to catch our attention and to make a point. We do this a lot with English. And it also happens in the Greek of the New Testament. So we need to interpret here Jesus’ words about hate truthfully but not literally. He says, “Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” Jesus is not a hater. Here in the Gospel according to John, Jesus has only just said, “For God so loves the world . . .” And that includes you, and me, and everyone-everything else to which God has given life, God loves.[1] Eternally. God is love.[2] Read More
You Are Precious in My Sight – Br. James Koester
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Br. James Koester
The Fifth Sunday in Lent
You can’t walk there anymore. One morning, on my first visit to Jerusalem, nearly 30 years ago, I walked from East Jerusalem, where I was staying, over the Mount of Olives and on into Bethany. I was going to visit the tomb of Lazarus and the home of Mary and Martha. A few years later that walk was impossible. The security wall had been constructed, separating Bethany from Jerusalem. Now, the only way between the two communities is to drive several miles out of your way, through various checkpoints, and then loop back on the other side of the Mount. What took a couple of hours to walk, now takes a couple of hours to drive. What had been a pleasant walk there and back, has become a frustrating all-day drive.
It is that walk I remember. Once I got off the main road, I mostly had the way to myself. When I arrived at the tomb of Lazarus, I had it all to myself. I could sit there quietly and feel the emotion that was so evident in the place, as I heard in my heart the weeping of those gathered there that day long ago. It was just 6 months after my father had died, and my own grief was still fresh. As I sat there with my grief, I remembered Jesus’ grief for his beloved friend. John (11:35) tells us that “Jesus wept.”[1] I did not, that day, find his tears hard to imagine, as my own were just below the surface. Clearly the crowds noticed. See how he loved him! the crowds whispered among themselves. See how I loved him, as I thought of my own father. Read More
Why Forgive? – Br. David Vryhof
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Br. David Vryhof
It’s no wonder that Jesus made such a big deal of forgiveness in his teachings and in his parables. Forgiveness is essential to healthy human relationships. The French Jesuit and theologian, François Varillon, once said, “People cannot live together unless they forgive each other just for being who they are.” We all need to forgive and be forgiven, over and over again, if our life together is to be life-giving, and if we are to be the agents of healing and reconciliation in the world that Christ calls us to be.
Sometimes it’s easy to forgive. We find no difficulty in setting aside the incident and moving on. But at other times we may find it extremely difficult to forgive the one who has hurt us. We may believe that we should forgive; we may even want to forgive. But we recognize that our heart is so full of anger and pain that we cannot yet say, “I forgive you,” and mean it. A declaration of forgiveness at this point would be dishonest and premature. In circumstances like these, we can at least set ourselves on a path towards forgiveness, recognizing that arriving at forgiveness is a desirable and necessary goal, not only because we are commanded to forgive one another “seventy times seven,” but also because forgiveness will rid our hearts of the toxic presence of resentment, anger, and bitterness. Read More
Living Water – Br. James Koester
Br. James Koester
Preached at the Church of St. Augustine and St. Martin, Boston.
The Third Sunday in Lent
There is a small porcelain figurine in a church sacristy that fascinates me. It depicts this encounter between Jesus, and the Samaritan woman.[1]
Jesus sits on one side of the well. He is tall, handsome, masculine, and has lots of shoulder length hair. He is deep in conversation with the woman. She stands, leaning over, with her elbow resting on the wellhead. She looks directly at Jesus. Her hair is loose and flowing, and her dress is falling off one shoulder. Her hand is under her chin, just so. She is enticing, alluring, and attractive.
What this figurine says about Jesus and the Samaritan woman is no mystery. It may be pure white, but the message is in technicolour: a seduction is happening.
But then, this is how the story has been told to us. Read More
Our Daily Cross – Br. Jack Crowley
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Br. Jack Crowley
Our Gospel passage today features one of my favorite words that Jesus uses. That word is “daily.” Jesus tells his disciples that they must take up their cross daily and follow him. Jesus could have said, take up your cross when you are ready or take up your cross when the time is right, but instead, Jesus says plainly, take up your cross daily.
I always appreciate how Jesus does not sugarcoat the truth. The daily grind of taking up our cross is something we all know too well. We each have our own version of this. Each day’s cross carries its own little splinters, its own knots in the wood, and it can rub us the wrong way on different days. In my own experience, how I carry the cross one day doesn’t always translate to how I must carry the cross the next day. In other words, I’m relearning or remembering how to take up my cross each day, but with a slightly different accent or technique each time. Read More