Redemption
God’s Courtesy – Br. Lain Wilson
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Br. Lain Wilson
Julian of Norwich
The fourteenth century was a lousy century. Famine, plague, war. Absolutely lousy.
You wouldn’t know it reading Julian of Norwich, whom we remember today.
Julian would’ve been about six years old when the Black Death swept through England. She likely didn’t have any, or many, memories of this devastating event, and would’ve likely heard stories as she grew up. But we don’t know what she thought of it, or of any of the other horrors of her time. Her “Showings,” which testify to a series of visions she received in 1373, at around the age of thirty, are fundamentally optimistic. Read More
The Gift of Redemption – Br. Curtis Almquist
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Br. Curtis Almquist
Saint Stephen, Deacon and Martyr
The first generation of Christians in Jerusalem was comprised of two groups of Jews: the native Palestinians, and those who were outliers, sometimes called “the Dispersion” because they had been born and raised while “dispersed” into other countries. Their native tongue was Greek, and so they were called “the Hellenists.” Rivalry existed between these two groups, and converts to Christ brought their respective history with them. The Greek-speaking members were convinced that their widows and the other poor were not getting a fair share of the community’s food and financial support. To resolve the problem, the apostles appointed seven of the Hellenists to administer the Church’s resources and to care for its poor. Among the appointees was young man named Stephen. He ministered as a deacon in the Church.[1]
Stephen is described in the Acts of the Apostles as “a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit.”[2] He was an administrator, he preached, and he exhibited a charismatic authority. His ministry was miraculous. It was also conflictual. He came into conflict with the Jews who shared his own Greek-speaking background. They accused him of blasphemy, and dragged him before the Council which enforced the law of Moses. Stephen denounced them. He was silenced by being stoned to death, and he is remembered as the first martyr of the Church. Read More
Look Up – Br. Luke Ditewig
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When God rescued our ancestors out of slavery in Egypt, they spent forty years wandering in the wilderness. It was anything but a direct route to the Promised Land. They often complained about the conditions, thinking God must not care. It would have been better to stay in Egypt. The water is bitter. There’s little food. We’re thirsty. We miss eating meat.[i]
God sent manna, miraculous bread from heaven, a flaky white substance they gathered each morning. God gave water. God sent quail. Today’s text continues this theme. The people became impatient. “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we detest this miserable food.” This time God sent snakes, poisonous serpents, from whose bites many people died. The people repented: We sinned by complaining. Please take away the snakes.
Jesus’ Intervention – Br. Curtis Almquist
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This Gospel passage captures a moment in the close relationship between Jesus and two of his friends who probably know each other quite well: Mary of Bethany and Judas, the apostle. Mary and Judas could not seem more dissimilar… except for one thing. If we consider this Gospel scene “forensically,” that is, if we do some detective work and look under the surface, we can pick up some traces of evidence that inform the complicated interaction here between these three: Jesus, Mary, and Judas.
This is a dinner party taking place in Mary’s own home, a home she shares with her sister, Martha, and brother, Lazarus, three siblings with whom Jesus has the closest of relationships.[i] The back story is that a week or so before this dinner Lazarus had become very ill. Jesus, the friend and healer, was summoned, but he was slow to arrive. Meanwhile Lazarus dies. Stone dead. Jesus finally arrives in Bethany and is greeted by Mary, weeping. She kneels at Jesus’ feet in deep grief, imploring him how Jesus could have prevented this tragedy of Lazarus’ death had Jesus shown up on time.[ii] Now it is Jesus who weeps. And then Jesus acts. Jesus miraculously brings Lazarus back to life. It’s nothing less than a resurrection![iii]
Zealous for God – Br. Lain Wilson
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Feast of Saint Simon and Saint Jude
Today, one week before Election Day, is a day that I didn’t expect I needed Simon and Jude.
We don’t know much about these apostles—we know their names, and that early tradition consistently linked them together in mission to Persia and Armenia. We know that Simon was called “the Zealot” (but not what is specifically meant by this), and that Jude has come to be venerated as the patron saint of desperate or lost causes.
We don’t know much about them, but these small, memorable associations are somehow exactly what I needed today.
I’m sure many of us have felt, or maybe are feeling even now, a sense of despair—that we are going down a road with no return, that there will be something about who we are that is irrevocably broken. Here in the US, our major party candidates promise two very different visions of tomorrow—you may despair that the other side may win, or you may despair that neither vision speaks to the challenges that you and your loved ones face. I’m sure many of us feel like we’re facing one of the most desperate of lost causes. Read More
The Centre Cannot Hold – Br. Geoffrey Tristram
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Br. Geoffrey Tristram
Jeremiah 23:1-6
Mark 6:30-34, 53-56
In the year 1919, the poet W B Yeats wrote a poem called ‘The Second Coming’. There is a famous line in that poem which has resonated through the decades. He wrote, ‘Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold.’ The first world war had just ended, and it felt like chaos had descended on the world, with the breakdown of order, of stability, and of the traditional sources of authority. ‘Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold.’ For many, those words well describe our world and our nation today: The recent shocking attempt at an assassination, a deeply polarized and divided nation, a world filled with violence in the Ukraine, Gaza, and frightening weather patterns signaling a planet in crisis. ‘Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold.’
Yet these same words could also have been used to describe the land where Jesus walked. Not only was their land occupied by Romans, but worse, there as a breakdown of moral guidance and spiritual guidance from those who were meant to be their leaders, their ‘shepherds’. In our first reading today from the Book of Jeremiah, the prophet excoriates the religious leaders of Judah, ‘woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture. You have driven them away and not cared for them.’ But Jeremiah then goes on to give to the people a prophesy of hope. ‘The day is coming, says the Lord, when I will raise up a shepherd who will shepherd my people. I will raise up for David a righteous branch and he shall reign as king and execute righteousness in the land.’ That day finally came, when Jesus was born. Read More
Good News Amidst Bad News – Br. Curtis Almquist
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Br. Curtis Almquist
Our reading from the Prophecy of Isaiah is an 8th century BC version of what we are seeing every day in our own newspapers and online: a world, including our own homeland, teeming with conflict. For Isaiah, the players were King Pekah and King Remaliah of Israel; King Rezim of Aram-Syria; and Kings Tabeel, then Uziah, then Ahaz, and then Jotham the successive Kings of Judah.[i] For the life of me, I cannot keep it all straight – neither the political players whom we are reading about from the 8th century BC, nor our own present-day news stream: the historic territorial disputes, the ever-changing political alignments, often created by common enemies; the fracturing of treaties and goodwill; the political threats and promises; and the suffering of the innocent. Whether in the 8th century BC or in the 21stcentury of the Common Era, there are so many parallels in strife that span across time.
There is a word of hope buried in this Prophecy of Isaiah, hope for the 8th century BC which also pertains to us in our own day. Isaiah speaks an assurance in the voice of God: “Take heed, be quiet, do not fear, and do not let your heart be faint…” “Take heed, be quiet, do not fear, and do not let your heart be faint…” Read More
Christ died for you – Br. David Vryhof
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Br. David Vryhof
The gospel passage we have before us today wraps up the greatest miracle story in all of the gospels: Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. Other miracles pale in comparison to it, but still, as is so often the case in the gospel accounts, the reactions to this astounding miracle are mixed. Many of the Jews who witness the miracle come to believe in Jesus. But others report Jesus’ words and actions to the priests.
Their report prompts an interesting discussion: Jesus’ increased popularity poses a threat to the chief priests and Pharisees because it risks drawing the attention of the Romans, who, they fear, will crush this populist movement, destroying both their religion and their nation. There’s no reason to doubt the genuineness of their concern for their faith and for their country, but we must note, too, that the chief priests and Pharisees derive what power they have from Rome, so the threat to their livelihoods, their influence and their social status is real.
Caiaphas, the high priest, has a solution: Let this one man, Jesus, die for the nation. The death of Jesus will squelch the movement, he argues, and it is better to have this one man die than to have the whole nation come to destruction. The evangelist John is quick to point out the irony of the high priest’s statement. Caiaphas is speaking from a political point of view when he speaks of Jesus dying for the people, suggesting that Jesus die instead of the people. John, however, understands Caiaphas’ words from a theological point of view. For John, Jesus dying “for the people” anticipates the voluntary offering of his life that will further God’s plan to save both Jews and Gentiles through Jesus’ death and resurrection. He will die on behalf of the people, rescuing them from the power of sin and death, and obtaining for them the precious gift of eternal life. Read More
Resisting Change – Br. David Vryhof
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Br. David Vryhof
Jeremiah 7:23-28
Luke 11:14-23
If we were trying to come up with a theme for today’s lessons, I’d suggest the word “resistance.”
In the first reading, God reminds the Israelites of God’s generous offer: “I will be your God, and you shall be my people; and [you shall] walk only in the way that I command you, so that it may be well with you.” But the Israelites very clearly don’t hold up their end of the bargain. They do not listen or obey, but instead they walk “in their own counsels.” Despite repeated pleas from the prophets, they continue to “stiffen their necks” and refuse to accept God’s guidance and discipline. Why? Why do they return again and again to their old lives, refusing the new way of life God is offering them?
In the story from Luke, the theme again is resistance. Jesus heals a man by casting out a mute demon. The mute man speaks, and the crowd is amazed, but some challenge him by questioning the source of his power and by demanding further signs. Why couldn’t they rejoice in the healing? Instead of rejoicing and following him, they stiffen in their resistance and refuse to accept Jesus’ words and deeds. Where does such resistance come from? What were they resisting and why? Read More
Joy in the Midst of Grief – Br. Lain Wilson
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Luke 18:9-14
Psalm 30
Philippians 1:15-20
Just over 1600 years ago, a young couple dreamed a dream:
“One night we went to sleep, greatly upset, and we saw ourselves, both of us, passing through a very narrow crack in a wall. We were gripped with panic by the cramped space, so that it seemed as if we were about to die.”
This young couple was Valerius Pinianus and his wife, Melania. They were two of the super-rich of the later Roman world. They were also Christians. And at this period in history these two things, wealth and Christian faith, were increasingly at odds with one another.
Pinianus and Melania, along with many of their contemporaries, were uncomfortable with their vast wealth. They grieved what their wealth afforded them. The open vistas of estates, the splendor and ostentation, the luxury of free time, had become for them a “narrow crack” and a “cramped space.” They grieved the weight of wealth on their souls. And this grief prompted them to make an unprecedented renunciation of their worldly wealth.[1] Read More