Take a Walk: 20 Year Review
This morning while I was listening to my top Spotify listens for 2022, Judah & the Lion’s song Take a Walk hit me in a special way. In the chorus it says: Let’s go take a walk downtown/ and act like we’re the heroes/ that we dreamed we’d be when we were young/ we can be the giants/ in the streets we learned to drive in/ and we’ll ride away into the sun Read more...
Luke 24:1-12; Unspoken Expectations
Whether we realize it or not we all have expectations. When a football player enters the end-zone after a game-changing interception we expect a big team celebration. Presidential candidates are expected to kiss babies. When an application gets updated on your phone you expect new features and a new look. These and so many of the expectations of our daily lives are unspoken. No one really notices they even exist until they are not met. Read more...
Exegesis on Luke 24:1-12
Mary Magdalene and the other women disciples with her had followed the dead body of their Rabbi from the foot of the cross to the tomb on that Friday. On the Sabbath they mourned the loss of their great friend and teacher and prepared for the task of making Jesus' body ready for burial at the new week. Early the first Sunday morning after the death of Jesus Mary expected to find the tortured body of her great mentor. Read more...
Luke 4:21-30; Challenging our Self-Centered Expectations
In today’s gospel reading we find Jesus attending worship at his home congregation in Nazareth for the first time since he left. One can almost imagine the scene as the familiar – and yet now somehow unfamiliar – Jesus takes his old place in the synagogue. The sweet elders of the congregation surround him, excited to hear how the boy they saw grow up has faired in the world. The men Jesus grew up with fish for stories of life outside of little Nazareth; tales of danger and adventure. Read more...
