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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…

Now the word of the LORD came to me saying,”Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.” Then I said, “Ah, Lord GOD! Truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy” [Jeremiah 1:4-6]. “If you don’t have a call, then you better get one.” This seminary humor circulates endlessly in divinity schools. Its persistence speaks to a universal truth about the nature of calling. The joke’s irony lies in suggesting we can manufacture what only God can initiate. The tension between human agency and divine calling…

All the people gathered together into the square before the Water Gate… They told the scribe Ezra to bring the book of the law of Moses …. He read from it facing the square before the Water Gate from early morning until midday, in the presence of the men and women and those who could understand; and the ears of all the people were attentive to the book of the law …. And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was standing above all the people; and when he opened it, all the people stood up … and they bowed their heads and worshiped…

On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding [John 2:1-2, a portion of the Gospel reading assigned for this Sunday, the Second Sunday after the Epiphany, RCL, Year C]. In John’s Gospel, the first glimpse we have of Jesus’ public ministry doesn’t arrive with heavenly fanfare. No angels sing. No star guides magi from the East. After the Gospel writer’s soaring prologue about the Word becoming flesh, after John the Baptizer’s testimony and those first curious disciples beginning to follow, after Jesus’ enigmatic promise to Nathanael about “seeing…

Now when all the people were baptized and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased” [Luke 3:21-22]. Last weekend, as I sat with the lectionary readings for this Sunday's celebration of the Baptism of our Lord [First Sunday after the Epiphany, Luke 3:15-17, 21-22, RCL, Year C], a detail in Luke’s gospel caught my eye, one that I'd somehow missed in all my years of reading this familiar text. Describing the scene when…

Hear the word of the LORD, O nations, and declare it in the coastlands far away; say, “He who scattered Israel will gather him and will keep him as a shepherd does a flock” [Jeremiah 31:10]. The Word became flesh and lived among us [John 1:14]. In the wake of Jerusalem’s destruction by Babylonian forces in 587 BCE, the prophet Jeremiah—who had long warned of impending judgment—turns to words of consolation. The scattered people will be gathered from “the farthest parts of the earth” (31:8). God will lead them “by brooks of water, in a straight path in which they shall not stumble’ (31:9). “Then shall the young women rejoice…

The LORD has bared his holy arm before the eyes of all nations [Isaiah 52:10] These words from Isaiah [see Isaiah 52:7-10, the Old Testament reading for Christmas Day, RCL, Year C] originally fell on weary ears. Decades into exile, the people of Judah had heard it all before—promises of restoration, visions of return, declarations that God would act decisively on their behalf. Yet their once-mighty Jerusalem still lay in ruins, its walls crumbled, its temple destroyed. Some blamed themselves, seeing in their exile the fruits of their own rebellion. Others wondered if God had simply abandoned them. Most had probably stopped listening to prophets altogether. Yet here was Isaiah,…

But you, O Bethlehem of Ephrathah, who are one of the little clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to rule in Israel, whose origin is from of old, from ancient days [Micah 5:2]. In the 8th century before Christ, as powerful Assyrian armies threatened the southern kingdom of Judah, people looked anxiously for signs of YHWH’s presence and deliverance. Many turned their eyes to Jerusalem, the great city with its magnificent temple, the obvious place to look for divine intervention. After all, wasn’t this where kings ruled and priests offered sacrifices? Wasn’t this where YHWH’s presence dwelt in the Holy of Holies? But…