Meditations

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

Alas for those who are at ease in Zion, and for those who feel secure on Mount Samaria. Alas for those who lie on beds of ivory, and lounge on their couches, and eat lambs from the flock, and calves from the stall; who sing idle songs to the sound of the harp, and like…

First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone, for kings and all who are in high positions, so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity [1 Timothy 2:1-2]. What happens when the pursuit of peace collides with the demands of…

“Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it?” – Luke 15:4 [part of the Gospel reading for this upcoming Sunday, the Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost, RCL, Year C]. Jesus posed…

The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: “Come, go down to the potter’s house, and there I will let you hear my words.” So I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was working at his wheel. The vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand, and…

For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and dug out cisterns for themselves, cracked cisterns that can hold no water [Jeremiah 2:13, a portion of the OT reading for this Sunday, the Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost, RCL, Year C]. Thirty feet beneath the streets of Istanbul,…