Month: May 2020

When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained” [John 20:22-23; a portion of the Gospel lesson appointed for Pentecost Sunday (RCL, Year A)]. As I mentioned six weeks ago in an earlier post [April 15, 2020, “Hiding in the Safe Room,”], the Gospel reading for the Second Sunday of Easter is the same for all three years of the Lectionary cycle. It’s John’s familiar story of the “disciples” cowering behind locked doors on the evening of that first Easter Sunday…

Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that is taking place among you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you are sharing Christ’s sufferings, so that you may also be glad and shout for joy when his glory is revealed [1 Peter 4:12-13].   Earlier this week, a friend and I were exchanging some rather light-hearted theological banter (observing safe-distancing, of course; we communicated via e-mail), when suddenly, the friend’s “tone” became quite serious. He wrote, I was reading ahead among the scriptures appointed for this upcoming Sunday, and I saw references in First Peter to suffering, to the…

“And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever” [John 14:16 (NRSV)]. The Reverend Dr. Sam Wells, former Dean of Duke University Chapel, now “merely” the vicar of St Martin-in-the-Fields at Trafalgar Square, in central London, has written and lectured extensively on what, for lack of a better term, might be called “social engagement.” In doing so, Sam is neither offering comments on how far we should stand apart during the COVID-19 pandemic, nor is he giving advice on which London Dry one should prefer — e.g., Hendricks or Tanqueray. In a bit of a round-about designed to draw us closer…

“In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?” [John 14:2]. One of the most beloved, and yet, as I attempt to explain below, misunderstood passages in all of John’s gospel is what I refer to as Jesus’ “Heavenly Hostel” talk found in the opening three verses of John 14. These verses are part of the three-chapter “Final Discourse” of Christ within which he gives the Eleven — Judas has already departed to put his scheme into play — some last minute guidance and assurance. As I have written elsewhere, these…