The Riverside Gathering Posts

And he said, “For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted by the Father.” Because of this many of his disciples turned back and no longer went about with him. So Jesus asked the twelve, “Do you also wish to go away?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God” [John 6:65-69]. Three years ago today, a close friend, Rick Jenkins, died here in Durham. A number of you, particularly those in Carolina Arbors, knew Rick…

At Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream by night, and God said, “Ask what I should give you” [1 Kings 3:5]. While some—perhaps many—might not recall the specifics of how Solomon came to be gifted with wisdom, few within our Judeo-Christian society would be unaware of that important Solomonic characteristic. Indeed, politicians, church and business leaders, educators, and others are often invited to exercise “the wisdom of Solomon.” And, of course, who can forget Solomon’s wise solution to the question as to which of two women was the mother of one baby [1 Kings 3:16-28]? This week’s OT reading [1 Kings 2:10-12; 3:3-14, the Thirteenth Sunday after…

Introduction This week’s Gospel reading [John 6:35, 41-51, the Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost, RCL, Year B] confronts us with Jesus’ provocative self-identification, “I AM the bread of life” [John 6:35a]. In this week’s reading, Jesus repeats his statement three more times. His was not a slip of the tongue. For years now, I’ve been struck by a verse that follows this week’s lesson: From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him’ (John 6:66). The Gospel writer’s stark statement reveals the shocking impact of Jesus’ words on His original audience. To devout Jewish believers of the time, Jesus’ statements about eating His flesh and drinking…

So they said to him, “What sign are you going to give us, then, so that we may see it and believe you? What work are you performing? Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” Then Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. [John 6:30-32]. As we turn to this week’s Gospel lesson, John 6:24-35 (Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost, RCL, Year B), we encounter a somewhat beleaguered Jesus. The ink on…

When he looked up and saw a large crowd coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?” He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do. Philip answered him, “Two hundred denarii would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little.” One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many people?” Jesus said, “Make the people sit down.” Now there was a great deal of grass in…

She had endured much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had; and she was no better, but rather grew worse. She had heard about Jesus, and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, for she said, “If I but touch his clothes, I will be made well.” Immediately her hemorrhage stopped; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease [Mark 5:26-29]. In this week’s Gospel reading, Mark 5:21-43 (Sixth Sunday after Pentecost, RCL, Year B), we have a story within a story, what one of my minister friends calls, “a Markan sandwich.” Scholars have posited a number of…

A great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm [Mark 4:37-39]. As noted by not a few NT scholars, there is a close relationship between the parables of Jesus and his miracles, particularly within the Gospel of Mark. Parables lead us on to miracles. Miracles show us…

He also said, “The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how. The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come” [Mark 4:26-29]. Last week’s meditation didn’t work as I would have liked. If you haven’t read it, just skip on down two paragraphs. If you did read it and agree with me that it lacked something,…

They heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. But the LORD God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?” He said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.” He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” [Genesis 3:8-10]. I’d wager that no text in all…

Again He entered the synagogue, and a man was there who had a withered hand. [The Pharisees] watched Him to see whether He would cure him on the sabbath, so that they might accuse him. And He said to the man who had the withered hand, “Come forward.” Then He said to them, “Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the sabbath, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent. He looked around at them with anger; He was grieved at their hardness of heart and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored. The…