Proper 6B, June 17, 2012

O startling God, grant us the strength, the wisdom and the courage to seek always and everywhere after truth, come when it may, and cost what it will.

Instead of the usual Gospel acclamation this morning, I was tempted to shout, “Hallelujah, we are back in the Gospel of Mark!” and invite you to respond, “Thanks be to God!” I don’t actually know if you all are as happy about it as I am. I am aware that I’m a Bible geek! I just love the baffling Zen koan nature of Jesus’ teachings in the earliest Gospel, and I love Mark’s aside’s like when he writes“with many such parables he spoke the word to them…but he explained everything in private to his students (or disciples).” Left unwritten, however, is the private explanation of the riddles. I think the assumption is that the readers or hearers of this Good News get the jokes. I have a strong sense that Jesus was a very funny man – that humor was a part of his medicine bag. The problem is that two thousand years later, no-one cracks up with laughter when I read this Gospel passage in church. Continue reading →

Trinity Sunday, Year B, June 3, 2012

O God increation, incarnation, inspiration, grant us the strength, the wisdom and the courage to seek always and everywhere after truth, come when it may, and cost what it will.

If you’ve been to a professional football game or a similar event in a large venue, you might have noticed banners that say, simply, John 3:16. Or maybe you’ve noticed bumper stickers or billboards that say John 3:16. “For God so loved the world that God gave the only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” It is, in my opinion, one of the most misappropriated and misunderstood passages of scripture in the whole Bible. John 3:16 has fueled some of the most damaging and unloving impulses of those who have taken the name Christian, from the Crusades to the destruction of conquered indigenous peoples, to the Holocaust, and to our present day. Continue reading →