Spending time this Advent with Mary, and women in general, we can discover women are powerful. We would not know that power from today’s Old Testament reading. It promotes atonement, meaning it promotes “sin” and “guilt.” The Gospel reading does not promote atonement but does address it with John in the desert. He proclaims…
The Old Testament, “Lord,” Yahweh, wears a MAGA hat: Make Atonement Great Again. Atonement asserts reparations or payments be made from the common people to “the Lord.” But by way of the earthly ‘Lords’ who took money from common people they judged as “depraved” and deserving of “the Lord’s wrath.” For that atonement price,…
A person burdened with the baggage of salvation poses a question to Jesus, “Will only a few people be saved?” Jesus is free of the salvation burden. It forces on people a false identity as sinners who must be saved from their condition. Jesus knows each person’s saintliness, their Godliness. He knows all of…
Service for its own sake can be a delight. Doing something for others who benefit from the service we provide can be the foundation of a truly meaningful life. When Jesus speaks to a crowd about service in this Sunday’s Gospel, delight and meaning may not come to their minds. It is not for…
There are millions of people within institutional christianity who reject Jesus’ witness with the man born blind. Jesus taught and demonstrated with the blind man that external suffering or deprivation of any kind is not God’s will. Illness, poverty, disadvantage of any type is not from God. Suffering caused by blindness or any other…
John the Baptist twice says of Jesus in this Sunday’s Gospel: “I did not know him.” There are additional instances after Jesus’ baptism that shows John didn’t entirely understand Jesus, or His mission. (Matthew 11:2-6) Though John doesn’t know Jesus, John knows the old God and the old religion of the Old Testament. John…
Suffering, such as the Gospel describes this Sunday in the crucifixion, is violently inflicted upon Jesus on the cross. Such suffering is unfortunately extolled in institutional christianity. It is mistakenly believed to save us. It is a mistaken belief because Jesus never teaches his suffering saves us. Those who believe it are therefore not…
In the Gospel, we see a women dragged into the streets but who because of Jesus’ response, emerges from her enslavement. Emerging seems to describe our humanity. We are emerging because we are centering ourselves on the witness of peacemakers, like Christ Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus’ life witness, as shown with the woman in…