“Come to the church on Saturday,” I said to my students, “Come and see Mr. Grayson die.” That is what I said when I invited my students to my wedding. This past week I was privileged to attend both a…
For a Wedding is a Funeral
The Burning Warehouse: A Parable
A brother and a sister lived together in a loft in a large converted warehouse. The warehouse was on fire, and the fire was blocking the exits. As the flames engulfed their loft, they moved further in, to a loft…
Forgiveness and The Law
Very recently, the wife of a famous murder victim very publicly forgave the man who killed her husband. The reaction to this has be wide and varied. Some expressed admiration. Others were incredulous. And still others were humbled. But the…
The Lesson From Simon’s Mother-In-Law
This past weekend I was down with an illness. Nothing life-threatening, but it had me up two nights in a row. To tell you the truth, I feel like I’ve been through the wringer. But as the sickness cleared up,…
The Temptation of Being Right
We’ve all been there. Someone says something on an online forum, or in a conversation, something that we know is mistaken. Immediately we want to put it right. “That’s wrong!”, we might say. We might follow up to the posting…
The Deacon as Christ the Servant
By God’s grace, I have been accepted into the Candidacy program for Diaconate Formation. This means that, God-willing, I will be ordained a deacon in three years. At our Candidacy Mass, our bishop called us into formation and told us…
God Will Be Mocked (And So Will You)
Recently there was a production of Jesus Christ Superstar that caused a great deal of controversy. Those who saw it as an attack on the faith were incensed. I saw many posts writing about this saying, “God will not be…
The Call of Gideon – An Old Testament Archetype
The Book of Judges describes the actions of men and women called to save the people of Israel between the time of Joshua and the monarchy. In particular, Judges 6:11-24a describes the call of Gideon to be a judge. What…
Constancy in Faith
I wrote a few years ago [Seeing with the Eyes of Faith] about how faith is not a blind leap in the hope that there might be something on the other side to catch us. Instead, it is an act…
Elements of the Gospel of Mark
When studying the Bible, there is a vast wealth of scholarship and commentaries over the centuries. Because of this, it can be daunting to know where to begin. The Gospel of Mark is the shortest of the four Gospels. Many…