Today’s Old Testament reading focuses on the Chosen people to whom the Lord God Yahweh says, “I have appointed you watchman for the house of Israel.” “If I tell the wicked, ‘O wicked one, you shall surely die,’ and you do not speak out to dissuade the wicked from his way, the wicked shall…
Several instances of Jesus’ most important teaching, the “Kingdom of God,” rarely addressed in Protestant sermons or Catholic curriculum, are squeezed together in today’s Gospel selection. The effect is to squeeze out Jesus’ actual teaching on it – that the Kingdom of God, better translated as the Community of God, is happening in the…
Today’s readings ask us to consider to whom we belong. Zechariah speaks of his nation as the best nation and his joy in belonging to it, “Rejoice heartily, O daughter Zion, shout for joy,” “See, your king shall come to you.” Jesus speaks of “little ones,” vulnerable people who form community, as those to…
In the first reading the prophet Elisha is conscious of the hospitality a woman provides and promises to reward her. Paul proclaims consciousness about a life before baptism and the rewards of a baptized life. Jesus begins his Gospel conscious of the violence done to peacemakers (“the cross”) but promises that rewards will come…
Jesus is known as a man of peace. In John’s Gospel he is likened to a caring shepherd, “the sheep hear his voice, as the shepherd calls his sheep by name and leads them.” Jesus’ gentleness with people is contrasted to men of war. Such men are likened to “thieves and robbers,” who “comes…
In the Old Testament scripture, Malachi promises people safety and salvation when he says their War “Lord God will come to his temple” and wage war. Under the command of the War Lord Yahweh and his War Lord soldiers “all enemies will be stubble, and the day that is coming will set them on…
An old adage suggests that if you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans. But Militarists who invented the mirror-image God who laughs at our plans, tell us their plans for us all the time. The plans of Militarists fill today’s readings. The Militarist Solomon asserts, “Lord, You have chosen me king…
The Old Testament reading says the people should be “an offering to the LORD.” It means the people should live their lives in sacrifice to the Lord. If they do so, the Lord will save them from their “enemies.” In the Gospel “Jesus passed through towns and villages, teaching as he went.” “Someone asked…
Disciples ask Jesus for help, “Teach us to pray.” Included in Jesus’ response he says, “Ask and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will…