Okay, it’s December. It’s Advent. Christmas is coming. But it’s also a pandemic, and church is back to being online, not in person. How are we going to have a Christmas pageant? It’s time for the Zoom Christmas Pageant! The Zoom Christmas Pageant! A few years back I wrote a Christmas play. Better to say […]
The Wedding Banquet — Matthew 22:1-14
The Wedding Banquet: The Musical This Sunday’s Gospel (Matthew 22:1-14) is known as “the parable of the wedding banquet.” It lives in my memory, and perhaps in yours as well, in the cheerful lyrics of the Sunday School song sung by happy little Lego figures in the video below. My wife and I actually used […]
A Definition of Forgiveness — Matthew 18:21-35
Sunday’s Gospel from the Revised Common Lectionary (Matthew 18:21-35) continues the same scene as last week, and leaves us with a remarkable, simple, working definition of forgiveness. If you are a regular reader of these weekly meditations, you know that I often point out places where historically we Christians have misconstrued the teachings of the […]
Church Discipline — A Meditation on Matthew 18:15-20
This Sunday the Gospel text is Matthew 18:15-20, a classic text in discussions of church discipline, and the first of two weeks the Revised Common Lectionary will spend in Matthew 18. Though I seem constitutionally incapable of writing a genuinely short meditation, I’ll try to confine myself to a few observations on this text, especially […]
Get Behind Me and Take Up Your Cross
A Monday Meditation on Matthew 16:21-28 — Year A, Proper 17(22) On the 13th Sunday after Pentecost, the Gospel reading in the Revised Common Lectionary is Matthew 16:21-28, where Jesus meekly says to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan!” That is, we pick up where we left off last week. The pause between last week’s part […]
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