O6052021 – Mark 3. 20-35 This is “a literary style.” It has been called by various names. “BOOK ENDS” or “SANDWICHING” comes to mind. It begins with Jesus’ family coming to “RESTRAIN him.” But “that story” is interrupted by still ANOTHER STORY about some SCRIBES coming down from Jerusalem. And then, ultimately, we […]
11252020 – Luke 17.11-19 I am guilty. I am pretty sure, we ALL are. I can be thankful. I can be FILLED with gratitude. But I can also COME OFF as being THANKLESS, sometimes. One might think that I am altogether DEVOID of a thankful spirit…DEVOID of any and all gratitude whatsoever… […]
112120 – Matthew 25. 31-46 Matthew’s gospel make it sounds so easy. And I am here to tell you, life is NOT so simple. Life is “pretty” complex. Heck, sometimes, “life” just seems hard and difficult. But the Gospel of Matthew makes it sound VERY “black and white.” Kind of easy-peasy. I DO […]
11182020 – Matthew 25. 14-30 In the first century, a TALENT was the LARGEST unit of currency AVAILABLE at the time. For us, it is the 100 dollar bill. Yep, a “talent was money.” A whole lot of money. Cool, hard cash! Some scholars guess or try to speculate that a talent would have […]
11182020 – Matthew 25. 14-30 In the first century, a TALENT was the LARGEST unit of currency AVAILABLE at the time. For us, it is the 100 dollar bill. Yep, a “talent was money.” A whole lot of money. Cool, hard cash! Some scholars guess or try to speculate that a talent would have […]
11112020 – Matthew 25 1. 1-13 It’s a GOOD parable… It has a good MESSAGE… It almost seems to be like a “WISDOM writing.” But it all depends upon, HOW SERIOUSLY WE take its message. It teaches NOT EVERYTHING can be BORROWED. It teaches not everything can always be PUT OFF. We miss […]
11072020 – Matthew 25. 1-13 The Parable of the “WISE and FOOLISH Virgins,” has to do with the activities LEADING-UP-TO a typical Jewish wedding in Jesus’ day. This particular story is ONLY TO BE FOUND in the gospel of Matthew. It is just ANOTHER ONE of the countless stories that Jesus told, […]
11042020a – Matthew 5. 1-12 Each and every year – All Saints Day falls on November 1st. BUT it is considered to be “a moveable feast date” on the church calendar, so if it does not fall on a Sunday, then, it is celebrated on the next closest Sunday. Historically, All Saints Day began as a commemoration of […]
10282020 – John 8. 31-36 All this talk of “slavery” and of “being a slave” does not go over well today… It’s time has more than come…we have all these twenty-first-century sensitivities…to deal with… It’s awkward, it really is… In this rather “sometimes” – “enlightened age of ours,” language can easily […]
10212020 – Matthew 22. 15-22 Remember the Roadrunner and the Coyote? Meep, meep…and he was gone just like grease lightning…leaving old Wiley E. in his dust… That poor old coyote tried dynamite, TNT explosives and charges, dropping boulders from on high, everything he could think of… He even tried his hand at painting murals on […]