They said to her, “None of your relatives has this name.” Then they began motioning to his father to find out what name he wanted to give him. He asked for a writing tablet and wrote, “His name is John.” And all of them were amazed. Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue freed, and he began to speak, praising God.
Tag: The Gospel
Gospel of the Day | The Magnificat
Let us truly magnify the Lord, the maker of all things, that he has entered into our stories through his beloved son — that he has humbled the proud and the mighty in the imagination of their hearts and has raised up the lowly. Let us rejoice in God who has truly saved us. Holy — holy is the Lord — he does great things for us. Holy is his name.
By What Authority?
Radical transformation wouldn’t be radical if it wasn’t stepping on someone’s toes. Only the upstarts are described as ‘radicals.’ Jesus was an upstart, and those in power — those who assumed a monopoly on righteousness — wanted to know by what authority Jesus did what he did. But this is the power of the doing of God’s work: When God calls Moses to act, to lead the people of Israel through the sea, there is no doubt who is doing what. ‘You shall know that I am the Lord your God, who has freed you from the burdens of the Egyptians (Exodus 6:7).’
Church on the Foothills
One of the sheep has gone astray, and here I am not convinced the Gospel is talking about the people in the poorer areas. It reads more to me that the ‘Christians’ are the lost sheep. The very idea of community ministry has gone astray. Both churches sit on the foothills between the green pastures and the mountains, and they have danced up into the mountains in search of plummy things and have gotten lost.
Questions and Answers
Jesus, as we encounter him in the Gospels, never gets into the habit of telling people who he is. Rather, he demonstrates who he is in what he does and says, and so invites us to answer the question of his identity. In today’s Gospel reading the religious authorities are shocked that he says to a man that his sins are forgiven. Only God can forgive sins. So who is Jesus then? The Pharisees and the Sadducees are left with a problem: Once they have removed all of the improbable answers to the question, they are left with only one answer. Only God can forgive sins. This is true. And Jesus forgives sins. So who is this Jesus?
Sunday Sermon | Second Sunday of Advent 2022
Telling hard truths seldom makes us friends. More often than not speaking the truth — especially to power — results in our banishment out into the wilderness. ‘Like grapes in the wilderness, I found Israel,’ declares the prophet Hosea. It is in the desert place, the wilderness, that God meets his people. He calls them there and from there he sends them. Let us not be afraid of the wilderness. It was into the wilderness Moses was called to encounter God on the mountain, and it was in the wilderness John and Jesus were prepared.
With Power and Great Glory
The days from the Nativity to the Resurrection were only Part 1 of the great drama of the coming of the long-expected messiah. The sequel is coming soon — and it’s bigger and better, and there ain’t nothing like it on Netflix. Before we get to Christmas, the celebration of Jesus’ first appearing, the Church gets back to the future and reminds us of what is still ahead of us.
Queen of Christmas!
The spiritualisation of Christmas; what, with all the hymns and angels and shepherds on Hallmark cards, has taken something incredibly material from this most holy season — that the King of Heaven has entered into the human story and stands before us saying this:
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