“John the Baptist saw Jesus coming toward him and said, ‘Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.’” What is the sin of the world? For millennia religious rulers have claimed the sin of the world is disobedience to a Supreme Lord who thus requires payment and death. The…
“The rulers sneered at Jesus and said, “He saved others, let him save himself if he is a king.” “The soldiers too jeered at Jesus” on the cross. “Now one of the two criminals hanging there reviled Jesus, saying, ‘Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us.’” The earthly kings and their soldiers…
Jesus was realistic about sin. However, he did not spend too much time or energy on the sins committed by common people. He spent more time and energy on the sins committed by rulers. Their personal and social sins caused far more harm – to the people. The harm was apparent to Jesus’s own…
Jesus tells a parable of a Pharisee, “convinced of his own righteousness who despised everyone else.” He is a man who believes he is unlike other commoners. He is supreme, without sin. The Pharisee is helping maintain an entire system of supremacists who force lesser men to be obedient to them. The system includes…
The Third, Fourth, and Fifth Sunday’s in Lent provide something called an alternate Gospel reading. Its message is virtually identical to the regular Gospel. The alternate is provided for adults who are preparing for baptism. The institutional Church requires they go through a process called The Scrutinies. While The Scrutinies are encouraged for all…
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…
Lent is inappropriately linked with sin and therefore with disempowerment. Lent is actually an experience of empowerment as the Lenten Sunday Gospel readings show. The Gospel from the First Sunday of Lent begins with Jesus being led into the desert by the Spirit. He is being empowered for his coming public ministry. The Gospel…
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…
Conception, a natural consideration in this season awaiting a baby’s birth, is not considered this Sunday. It is displaced by a warning from John the Baptist as the Gospel reading. Quite unfortunate, since today, December 8th, is a specific day celebrating conception. It is Mary’s Immaculate Conception. The festive celebration of Mary’s conception happens…