“Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one” (Jo. 17:11). This morning our Gospel reading from John shows us Jesus at prayer. Nothing remarkable […]
Learn more“I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father” (Jo. 15:5). As we know, Easter is a season not a day: fifty days, in fact, enabling us […]
Learn more“Abide in me as I abide in you” (Jo. 15:4). “Abide” is a funny word, with an old-fashioned Smoky Mountain sound to it: you can imagine your hillbilly grandma saying, for instance, “I can’t abide fiddle music.” Or […]
Learn more“I am the good shepherd” (Jo. 10:11). “Beautiful, fine, precious, noble, praiseworthy, salvific, excellent”: these are all translations that are alternatives to the word “good” in Jesus’ statement in our Gospel today. What kind of shepherd is Jesus, […]
Learn more“Now in Joppa there was a disciple whose name was Tabitha, which in Greek is Dorcas” (Acts 9:36). It’s a pleasure to preach and celebrate for our Tennessee Daughters of the King today, especially with our first reading, […]
Learn more“Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning […]
Learn more“And Mary said, ‘Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word’” (Lk. 1:38). Today we observe the feast of the Annunciation: the occasion, nine months before Christmas, when the […]
Learn more“If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained” (Jo. 20:22-23). The mention of forgiveness in our Gospel today is a bit of an outlier, since […]
Learn more“When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus” (Jo. 20:14). Mistaken identity: it’s launched a thousand plot lines, from B-movie romances (pick your favorite!), […]
Learn more“’I am the Alpha and the Omega,’ says the Lord God, ‘who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty’” (Rev. 1:8). Somewhere in the course of my theological education, I picked up a version […]
Learn more“Truly this man was God’s Son” (Mk. 15:39). When we get to the end of the story of Jesus’ crucifixion, we really have reached the summit of the Gospel. It’s not the end of the story, as we […]
Learn more“Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say – ‘Father, save me from this hour?’ No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name” (Jo. 12:27-28). Old-time Episcopalians […]
Learn more“Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life” (Jo. 3:14). The season of Lent is forty days long: […]
Learn more“After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up” (Hos 6:2). Here we are, mid-stream in Lent: deep enough into it to have found our footing and hit our stride, but […]
Learn more“Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things” (Mk. 8:33). Peter can never get it quite right. No sooner has he confessed that Jesus is the Messiah, just […]
Learn more“For just as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so the Son of Man will be to this generation” (Lk. 11:30). What is the “sign of Jonah”? There are three versions of Jesus’ saying about […]
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