Tag Archives: discipleship

“Baptized into the curious life of following Christ”

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1st Sunday after the Epiphany (Matthew 3:13-17)  01/09/2011

The celebration of the Baptism of our LORD

“Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him…” (Matt 3:17) Throughout the week I have been imagining John standing at the edge of the Jordan River, watching Jesus approach the crowd that surrounded John as he baptized them in the River. (As he watched Jesus approaching,) John must have thought, “now the real baptizing will begin,” but instead Jesus asks John to baptize him. John is surprised…what a curious request; the Messiah would like John to baptize him? As I considered how John must have felt in that moment, I thought of the curious events of life that we encounter and I was reminded of the classic children’s book written by E.B. White, Charlotte’s Web. White’s classic story of the “terrific” little pig Wilbur is full of curiosities. First, Wilbur was born the runt of a very large litter and his future did not look to be very long until he was saved by the protests of a young girl named Fern. Wilbur’s life was spared, but only to be sold to Farmer Zuckerman so the little pig could be fattened up and sold for Christmas dinner. Once again, Wilbur’s life was saved, but this time by an ingenious (or perhaps miraculous) spider named Charlotte. And so the story continues – every time the plot appears to be headed in the expected direction of “normal” life on the farm (and to the detriment of poor Wilbur) we are surprised to discover that the story has taken a curious turn in a new direction…a direction that causes everyone to wonder what could possibly be going on? Continue reading →

“Are you ready to receive the unexpected Gift?”

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Christmas Eve (Luke 2:1-20)  12/24/2010

Merry Christmas. We now have just a few short hours until Santa makes the rounds through Central CT…and I know this because I checked the official NORAD Santa Claus tracker just prior to coming to the church. At this point of the evening, Santa is hard at work delivering his load of goodies and he has long completed his final check of who has been naughty and who has been nice (I hope we all have managed to get on the “Nice” list this year). Santa’s list of gifts is famous for its complete and unfailing accuracy. And like Santa, each of us has our list of gifts and we likely carefully check their accuracy – maybe not using the “naughty” and “nice” criteria, but certainly each using our own method. Continue reading →

“Not Experts of God, but Children of God”

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Proper 28C (Luke 21:5-19)  11/14/2010

“Jesus said, ‘As for these things that you see, the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down.’ They asked him, ‘Teacher, when will this be, and what will be the sign that this is about to take place?’” (Lk 21:6-7) We should not be surprised that Jesus does not provide a direct answer to his followers, but instead describes a list of events that nearly every generation since the 1st century can understand…and all too well identify as their own. Today we live in a world of post 9/11 warnings and updates of terrorist activities throughout the world. These events are not new to world history, but how they manifest themselves today is certainly new to us. There is a feeling of uncertainty that is tangible and as we draw to the end of the year, the days remaining on the calendar are running out. And when time runs out, we come face-to-face with the tough questions. Are we good enough? Have we forgiven enough? Have we loved enough? These are questions that we carry with us each and every day, but as we approach the end of the year the many questions of our lives stand squarely in front of us…and we want to break through the uncertainty that surrounds us. Like Jesus’ disciples, we find ourselves asking, what will be the signs to point us through the time of unknowing. What should we know and what can we do to be prepared. Continue reading →

“Shrewdly seeking God’s grace”

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Proper 20C (Luke 16:1-13)  09-19-2010

A few years ago when my family and I moved from the Chicago area to the suburbs of Washington, DC, we quickly realized that the traffic was going to give us an opportunity to practice our patience and we also realized that an early start on the morning commute would be a necessity. Because the traffic was also unpredictable, an early start often meant an early arrival at the seminary, so I became a regular at the Student Lounge. Like many of the commuter students who frequented this convenient gathering place, I became familiar with the bad coffee, the uncomfortable furniture and the dismal gray walls. And because we were quite certain that the traffic was not going to end any time soon, we decided that we should make some changes to the lounge so our time there was more pleasant. A few pillows on the furniture and some good scrubbing on the coffee machines made a big difference, but those dismal gray walls were still very depressing. We thought a cheerful yellow paint would make a great difference on everyone’s attitude. We assumed that painting the lounge would require someone’s permission, so we asked several school officials for the name of the person in charge of the lounge. In every case the answer was the same: I don’t know who is in charge of the lounge. After an unsuccessful search for the person in charge, we finally decided to do the only reasonable thing: we bought some paint and woke up early one morning to quietly paint the lounge before anyone discovered our plan. With paint and brushes in hand, we prepared the room, covered the furniture and were only minutes from starting when the Manager of the book store came in to the lounge and told us that one of the school officials had heard we might be painting and she wanted to see us in her office right away. With only minutes to creatively save our plan, we quickly painted the smallest wall in the lounge. With a bad feeling about our future, we headed up the hill to explain our secret painting project.

The property manager in our Gospel lesson had a bad feeling about his future as well – called to the master’s house to give an accounting of his actions. Continue reading →

“Challenging ourselves to follow Christ beyond the boundaries of our world”

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Proper 18C (Luke 14:25-33)  09-05-2010

When my family and I moved from the Chicago area to Alexandria, VA, we searched for the familiar among the unfamiliar of our new surroundings to soften the transition. As we thought about our new home, we realized that Alexandria is the home of T.C. Williams High School, which was familiar to us from the movie “Remember the Titans.” The movie was released approximately 10 years ago and is a popular sports movie about a high school football team. The story deals with the racial integration of the team and the challenges faced by the coaches and the young players. The players and coaches face the difficult road of coming together as a team, both on the field and off, yet they must live among the pressures associated with the society of Alexandria, VA in 1971…a society with the cultural norms that had yet to fully embrace the idea of racial integration.

This morning in our Gospel lesson we hear of the large crowds following Jesus as he slowly makes his way toward Jerusalem. The large crowds prove the popularity that Jesus has attained, making him as popular and as well known as a modern day sports figure of our time. And as is often the cause with famous people, the people have made some assumptions about Jesus and have formed their own opinions of him and what their life should be like as one of his followers. However, Jesus takes some time to address the large crowd and tell them his understanding of what their lives have in store for them: “Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, even life itself, cannot be my disciple.” (Lk 14:26) Continue reading →