Month: February 2025

Now about eight days after these sayings Jesus took with him Peter and John and James, and went up on the mountain to pray [Luke 9:28]. In all three annual cycles of the Revised Common Lectionary, the Gospel reading for the last Sunday before Ash Wednesday is the Transfiguration story. This year, Year C, gives us Luke’s version [Luke 9:28-36, (37-43a). More or less consistent with the versions found in Mark and Matthew, Peter, John, and James witness Jesus transformed in glory. They see Him speaking with Moses and Elijah and, peculiar to Luke’s version, they hear the very voice of God affirming Jesus as beloved Son. It’s a moment…

Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Come closer to me.” And they came closer. He said, “I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt” [Genesis 45:4, a portion of the OT reading assigned for this Sunday, the Seventh Sunday after the Epiphany, RCL, Year C]. Simple words, spoken in an Egyptian palace, they carried the weight of decades. There were no dramatic flourishes, no accusatory tone—just a plain statement of truth that must have fallen like thunder in his brothers’ ears. They remembered what they had done. They had lived with that knowledge for years, watching their father’s grief, perhaps justifying their actions to themselves in quiet moments.…

One of my closest friends is a devout Roman Catholic who attends Mass almost daily. While I won’t share his name, many of my Gastonia friends will readily know of whom I speak. He and I share not only a hearty friendship, but a spiritual journey. We are sojourners along the same path, and I draw great strength from his "presence," despite the fact that we physically see each other perhaps once each year. This morning, after returning from Mass, he sent me an email that sparked this "Friday meditation." The day’s Gospel reading was Mark 7:31-37, the account of Jesus healing a deaf man with a speech impediment. In…

Blessed are those who trust in the LORD, whose trust is the LORD. They shall be like a tree planted by water, sending out its roots by the stream [Jeremiah 17:7-8a]. It’s 597 BCE. Jerusalem has already witnessed its first deportation to Babylon. Now, its remaining leaders face a wrenching decision: submit to Babylonian domination or gamble everything on Egyptian intervention. In this national crisis, the prophet Jeremiah steps forward. In the text that forms the OT reading for this upcoming Sunday, Jeremiah 17:5-10 [the Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany, RCL, Year C], he speaks of trust. While others frantically seek political solutions, Jeremiah sees a deeper issue: the tendency…

When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.” Simon answered, “Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets.” When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to burst [Luke 5:4-6]. As we turn to the Gospel lesson appointed for this upcoming Sunday [Luke 5:1-11, the Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany, RCL, Year C], we see that a crowd has assembled on the shores of Lake Gennesaret. They want to hear Jesus teach. The pressing…