Touchpoints (Page 14)
Touchpoint is a reflection on where God’s story touches our life story. It is a short homily based on a biblical story of people in the Old and New Testaments and their relationship with God. Our spiritual ancestors’ experience of God’s grace connects with our lives in the present and our relationship with the Divine.
Religious Slave-dom
The Philippians passage says that we are to have the mind of Christ, and that means not counting equality with God as something to be grasped, exploited, taken advantage of. But isn’t that the goal of Christianity and religion in general. To become god-like. To be equal in purity with God. To declare that I have the righteousness of God within me and impose it on others?
Dis-membered and Re-membered
Grace and peace from the mystery in whom we live and move and have our being. And I will remember their sin no more. Jeremiah 31:31-34 I talk a lot about the word remember. I use it in connection to Holy Communion when Jesus says to “Do this to re-member me.” And I use it to mean, not the opposite of ‘forget’, but as the opposite of ‘dis-member’. To ‘re-member’ is to ‘member’, connect, join. We partake of this meal…
A Defining Moment
Grace and peace from Mystery in whom we live and move and have our being. But Peter grabbed him in protest.” Mark 8:31-38 It’s a question of definitions. What is the essence of the Christ? What is the end game of the Divine? What does it mean to be ‘saved’? Or what is ‘salvation’? This is what is getting worked out in this passage. And it’s not something we can gloss over. In the previous verses, Jesus asks the disciples,…
Time For a Spring Dirting
Grace and peace from the Mystery in whom we live and move and have our being. 3:19b Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” Genesis 3:19b It’s probably one of the least popular phrases in our liturgical year. If you were to conduct a survey of favorite worship lines or phrases, I doubt it would rank up there with “This is the feast of victory for our God.” Or even, “Lamb of God, you take away…
When God Became Unhinged
Grace and peace from the Mystery in whom we live and move and have our being. Rabbi, it is good for us to be here. Let us make a dwelling for you and Moses and Elijah.” Mark 9:2-6 In reading all the commentaries on this passage, there seems to be one point of agreement… The Transfiguration story is a hinge story. It is a transition story. It stands as a mid-point hinge in the Gospel of Mark, where Jesus now…
Jesus as Garbage Man
Grace and peace from the Mystery in whom we live and move and have our being. As soon as they left the synagogue…they brought to him all who were sick or possessed with demons.” Mark 1: 29-39 What a difference a month makes. Just a few short weeks ago we were celebrating the Feast of the Epiphany and the story of the kings…the 3 kings our tradition says. Those 3 great kings who brought those amazing gifts to Jesus. Gold,…
Religion’s Demon
Grace and peace from the Mystery in whom we live and move and have or being. What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth, have you come to destroy us?” Mark 1:21-28 Let’s get the answer to that question out of the way right off the bat. The answer is YES, that is exactly what the Christ has come to do to us. Does that answer surprise you? Why? For every empty tomb in your life, that tomb…
God’s Net Worth
What a powerful image, being reborn as ‘food of grace’ for others.
Resurrection, not Insurrection
And this is where the restoration of our country will begin. In us. In us no longer staying quiet in the face of economic, racial, and judicial inequality. In us being brought into God’s kingdom rather than us trying to bring God into our kingdoms, and justify our kingdoms.
Something Needs to be Said
Grace and Peace from the Mystery in whom we live and move and have our being. “This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased.” Mark 1: 4-11 It’s a question of starting point. Where do you start in your journey of faith? What’s the basis for it all? John the Baptist and Jesus seem to have two different starting points. And we seem to like John’s the best. John’s starting point is about us doing something. It…
Mary Christmas
Grace and peace from the Mystery in whom we live and move and have our being. “Hail, favored one. The Lord is with you.” And, “Your relative Elizabeth…has also conceived a son.” Luke 1: 26-38 Wow! What an incredible thing to hear. The Lord is with you. The Lord has found favor with you. Who wouldn’t want that?! But then, as Paul Harvey would say, there is the “Rest of the story.” “You Mary, are so favored by God, and…
I AM (not)
This is the SIN the Lamb of God takes away from the world – our trying to be or become THAT which we think we NEED to be. Because when you realize you are not the Messiah, you actually get your life back as a gift – to be lived – and not something you have to save.