Month: October 2025

Luke 19:1-10 – Zacchaeus, the short tax collector who climbed a sycamore tree to see Jesus. Yes, I’m short. Can we get that out of the way? Short and rich and despised— The triple crown of Jericho’s outcasts. I took taxes for Rome. More than taxes, actually. Let’s be honest—I took whatever I could, Called it “fees” and “surcharges,” Built my beautiful house on other people’s bread. The righteous crossed the street when they saw me coming. Parents used my name to frighten children: “Eat your dinner or Zacchaeus will get you!” As if I were some kind of monster. Maybe I was. Maybe when you squeeze people for Rome’s…

He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector [Luke 18:9-10, a portion of the the Gospel lesson appointed for this upcoming Sunday, the Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost, RCL, Year C (Luke 18:9-14)]. We’ve likely heard the parable contained in this week’s Gospel lesson many times. In fact, we’ve maybe heard it too many times. In it, the Pharisee and the tax collector go up to the Temple to pray, and we know—before Jesus even finishes the story—how it’s going to…

Genesis 32:22–31 I’ve been waiting by this river. Watching him send everything across— the flocks, the wives, the children, all the wealth he bargained for. Everything he owns goes ahead to meet the brother he betrayed. He thinks he’s being clever, sending gifts in waves to soften Esau’s anger. He thinks he’s buying safety with his sheep. But I see what he doesn’t see yet— he’s been stripping himself down, sending away every shield, every distraction, until finally, there’s nothing left between him and what he fears most. He thinks he knows what’s coming. Twenty years he’s rehearsed it— what he’ll say to Esau, how he’ll bow, how he’ll beg,…

Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. He prostrated himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus asked, “Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” — Luke 17:15–18 Jesus speaks these words—part of the Gospel reading (Luke 17:11–19) assigned for this upcoming Sunday, the Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost, RCL Year C—with a peculiar edge. Not quite anger—more like astonished disappointment. Ten men healed. One returns. And Jesus doesn’t speak to the Samaritan…

The righteous live by their faithfulness — Habakkuk 2:4b The Present Grief On August 27, during a morning mass attended by students at a parochial school adjacent to Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis, a 29-year-old shooter killed two children and wounded others as they prayed. On September 10, Charlie Kirk was assassinated at Utah Valley University. Last Sunday, a man attacked a Mormon church in Michigan, killing four, wounding others, and bombing the building itself. We watch the news footage—shattered glass, police tape, grieving families—and the questions rise unbidden: How long, O Lord? Where were you? Why didn’t you stop this? We’ve become almost numb to such headlines, haven’t we?…