Month: March 2023

When they had come near Jerusalem and had reached Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, “Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her; untie them and bring them to me [Matthew 21:1-2, a portion of the Gospel reading, Palm/Passion Sunday, RCL, Year A]. While the Gospel reading appointed for the First Sunday of Lent rotates during the three-year Lectionary cycle among the Synoptic writers (Matthew, Mark, and Luke), the core story is always the same: immediately after being baptized by John the Baptist, Jesus moves out into the wilderness where he…

Accordingly, though Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, after having heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was [John 11:5-6]. For the fourth consecutive week, the Gospel reading appointed for this upcoming Sunday consists of a wonderful, long “encounter” narrative between Jesus and others. Three weeks ago, we saw our Lord’s encounter with Nicodemus (John 3:1-17). Two weeks ago, we sat with Jesus at Jacob’s well as he encountered the Samaritan woman with a sordid past (John 4:5-42). Last Wednesday, although I wrote about the OT reading—Yahweh’s choice of David as the second king of Israel—the Gospel reading provided the…

And the LORD said to Samuel, “Look not to his appearance and to his lofty stature, for I have cast him aside. For not as man sees does God see. For man sees with the eyes and the LORD sees with the heart” [1 Samuel 16:7, THE HEBREW BIBLE, translated by Robert Alter]. The year was 1,000 B.C.E., more or less. The Israelites—not much more than a loose confederation of tribal groups—were gripped by a crisis that largely was of their own making. They had allowed Yahweh’s religious institutions to become corrupted. No longer tied together religiously, what little unity they had ever enjoyed was spiraling away. Externally, the Israelites…

So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon. A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink” [John 4:5-7]. By the time you read this meditation, I’ll be well into the “serious” prep segment related to my colonoscopy, scheduled for tomorrow afternoon. I suspect that most of you have undergone that special rite of passage (pun intended). This will be my fourth, all spread out over 20+ years—all unremarkable,…

  Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.” “How can someone be born when they are old? Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born?” Jesus answered, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and Spirit [John 3:3-5, New International Version]. I think I’ve shared this story before, but during the late 1950s and early 1960s, our “pre-confirmation” Sunday School teacher at Olney Presbyterian Church, in southern Gaston County, made us play a “game” that she said…