Five Minute Friday :: Short

Owe no one anything, except to love one another,
for any one who loves another has fulfilled the law.
Romans 13:8
• Five Minute Friday :: Short Linkup

Buy short; sell long. Today I'm short on cash. Again. The short end of the deal.

Everyday.

Why do so many aspects of life keep coming up short? Not enough legal tender. Not enough human tenderness. The larder and the pantry lack. No rain for forty days and forty nights. Then nothing but rain with no sun for forty days and…

Knowing all that to be the case, what can we say about living in grace?

Maybe especially when we study the apostle Paul's theology, we contrast law and gospel.

Scripture reveals a world where we don't come up short, but one filled with abundance. The Hebrew scriptures particularly emphasize God's way as one of shalom, a peace that's far more than the absence of conflict. Shalom is wholeness, justice, goodness, bounty, and commonwealth. When we love one another we create shalom for the long run.

Shalom is integrity and honesty with each other. Shalom is the gospel lived out wherever we go. Shalom never runs short; it's the fullness of everything we need.

In the Acts of the Apostles we learn the newly birthed church born of Spirit, water, and Word, made sure everyone had enough, no one came up short on essentials. What can we say about living in grace?

"Owe no one anything, except to love one another, for any one who loves another has fulfilled the law." Romans 13:8

"Happy are the Shalom-makers, for they will be called children of heaven." Matthew 5:9

They'll be called children of heaven because when they practice shalom, no one comes up short. Everyone has enough. That is good news. That's gospel!

# # #

June 2026

• O Flying Butterfly… by Stanton MacDonald-Wright at LACMA
• Flowers at Wilshire Blvd and Westwood Blvd in Westwood
• Grand Park sign
• Detail from Female Figure by Roy Lichtenstein at the Broad


• Here's a chronicle of mostly Tuesdays, one Thursday, and a single solitary Sunday.

• Tuesday June 2nd was California voting with a very long ballot.

• Tuesday June 2nd at the Skirball Cultural Center, I missed the Comic Book Exhibit they included with admission, so I'll enjoy it next time and also spring for a ticket to Noah's Ark.

• On Sunday June 7th I preached for Pentecost 2A; Matthew's lectionary year continues.

• Tuesday June 9th was LACMA again because it's always a great way to enjoy second Tuesdays.

• No museum or other cultural outing for Tuesday June 16th, but I got a couple of necessities plus a few other things at the Inglewood Century Shopping Sprawl after a Butterscotch Frosty Sundae at Wendy's.

• Because the World Cup partly happened in LA, my Five Minute Friday on Thursday June 18th had to be about Korea and Mexico.

• June 23rd, the month's 4th Tuesday, featured lunch in Santa Monica followed by a short trip to the Westfield Culver City Mall.

• On the 5th Tuesday, June 30th, I visited The Broad Museum and Gloria Molina Grand Park.

• Tuesday June 30th was the release date for Brian Drinkwine's book, Kingdom Over Empire: Recovering the Gospel from Political Captivity. Due to serendipitously noticing Brian's launch team invitation on Facebook, I received an ARC. My amazon review is forthcoming and will have about two-thirds of my blog content.

Pentecost 2A

My sermon from yesterday.

Matthew 9:9-13

As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax-collection station, and he said to him, "Follow me." And Matthew got up and followed Jesus.

And as Jesus sat at dinner in the house – Matthew's house – many tax collectors and sinners came and were sitting with Jesus and his disciples.

When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?"

But when Jesus heard this, he said, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means, 'I desire mercy; not sacrifice.' For I have not come to call the righteous but sinners."

Here in the global North, we're one week into the halcyon days of summer, with sunny days, star-spangled nights, picnics, barbecues, music on the half shell, and feeling all of our dreams may come true, after all.

At the same time, the church's year of grace has opened wide the six month long season when we count Sundays after the Feast of Pentecost, a time of the Holy Spirit of Pentecost when the Church really comes into its own as we discern God's call and claim on our lives, and what ministries God may be calling us to respond to. Green is the liturgical color for these months, as we act in ways that help the world around us bloom and flourish.

This is the year of Matthew's gospel; today's gospel reading is Jesus' call to Matthew and Matthew's response. Although none of the earliest gospel manuscripts indicate an author, a community gathered around this disciple Matthew probably wrote this gospel.

As we just heard, Jesus notices Matthew at his workplace. Matthew collected taxes, tariffs, and tolls in the employ of the occupying Roman government. People generally hated tax collectors because – among other abuses – they added on their own charges to the amount required to return to Rome.

The gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke all contain this story. And, Mark and Luke tell us this tax collector's name was Levi, which means he was from the priestly tribe of Levites that ministered at the Jerusalem Temple. In other words, his life had fallen off the rails and he was in a profession opposed to his origins.

Today's reading from Matthew's gospel only mentions a house, but Luke and Mark tell us it was Matthew's house where Matthew/Levi made an extravagant banquet. Although we don't know the elapsed time between Jesus' invitation and Matthew's response, Matthew doubtless already knew a lot about Jesus. As part of his response to Jesus' invitation to follow him, Matthew offered an amazing feast to all comers, as if he already knew plentiful food was one of the signs of the presence of God's reign on earth.

Luke tells us everyone reclined at table. In that culture, reclining for a meal was a sign of shalom, of having "enough," no longer needing to scratch for life or be beholden to empire. Reclining at table meant everyone was an equal among equals.

* * *
You know about the ultra-religious pharisees with their self-righteous attitudes, and how they separated themselves from everyone else to avoid contamination. Jesus references "sacrifice" of the ceremonial law that did nothing to connect anyone to God, nothing to benefit anyone anywhere. Jesus reminds us he wants mercy.

Long ago in a previous life I knew a young woman I'll call Cheryl, because her name was Cheryl. Life dumped a lot on her from outside, and she made some decisions that had negative outcomes. It felt as if everyone was giving her unhelpful suggestions. When a new dog came into Cheryl's life and she decided to adopt him, she told me she asked herself what trait or characteristic did people need most? Her answer was mercy, so she named her new canine companion Mercy.

Is God able to name and call each of us Mercy and Merciful?

* * *
Originally for this start of the season of Pentecost when we discern and engage ministries that help the world bloom and flourish, I considered asking all of us to divide our lives into our immediate home, workplace, neighborhood; this parish and any other church communities where you're involved; and the larger, greater world out there. I thought I'd ask each of us what God is calling us to do in each of those arenas—smaller, manageable acts of service. That still feels like a good idea, but it's clear to me that the past couple of months, last Sunday's guest from Global Refuge, the needs of the city and county of Los Angeles and beyond, and today's immigration focused retreat after worship all point us to a continued emphasis on immigration and immigrants.

Last week Karla from Global Refuge placed immigration in the context of the Pentecost of our baptism! Scripture tells us we all are strangers and sojourners everywhere we go, and God travels with us.

I don't have an answer or a suggestion for ways to engage and minister around immigration during the next few months. We know it takes prayer, thought, listening, time, and conversations to discern where God is leading us and the nature of our responses.

* * *
Again today Jesus invites everyone to the table of grace for a foretaste of the feast to come when…

…many will come come from the east and the west, the north and the south, and recline at table in the Kingdom of Heaven. Luke 13:29

Amen? Amen!

Our song of the day is "We Come to the Hungry Feast"

Baptism of Jesus 2026

Matthew 3:13-17

¹³ Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him. ¹⁴ John would have prevented Jesus, saying, "I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?" ¹⁵ But Jesus answered him, "Let it be so now, for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness." Then John consented.

¹⁶ And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw God's Spirit descending like a dove and alighting on him. ¹⁷ And a voice from the heavens said, "This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased."

The Baptism of Jesus

As always, this is approximate, but I'm still happy to have enough notes to blog. As always, the real thing last Sunday was more dramatic and maybe even a little poetic.


The baptism of Jesus! Jesus' baptism in the Jordan River by his cousin John the … Baptist! John baptizes Jesus in the wilderness, away from centers of commerce, politics, religion. Far from the establishment. In the Jordan that was the boundary and the border to the Promised Land for God's people Israel after their lives of slavery in Egypt and their long trek through the exodus desert as they trusted God's total provision.

We find this event in all four of the gospels, so let's sit up and take notice because it must be important, maybe even pivotal. Today we hear from Matthew that has been our featured gospel since the church opened wide a new year of grace on the first Sunday of Advent. Each gospel has a distinct personality because the writer(s) wanting to convey particular facts and events.

Matthew views Jesus as the new Moses, a new King David. Moses is about the Reign of Heaven, Kingdom of Heaven rather than the reign or kingdom of God because Matthew wrote to Jewish Christians and Jews do not speak the divine name. Matthew never lets up on justice and righteousness.

Near the start of Matthew, an angel tells Jesus' stepfather Joseph to name the soon to be born baby Emmanuel or "God with us." This infant will be the presence of heaven in our midst! At the very end of Matthew's gospel, Jesus tells us to remember his promise to be with us forever, even until the end of time. (Matthew 28:20)

Matthew starts by announcing a book of beginnings or origins – biblios (book) geneseos (origin), A new creation, a new Genesis. Do you think that's why the committee that compiled the New Testament placed Matthew first?

We know Jesus' conception, birth, life, death, resurrection, and ascension as the first fruits of the new creation. But look where we are for Jesus' very first public appearance as an adult. It's away from the movers and shakers, far distant from the religious, commercial, and political establishment. It reveals God's paradoxical way of making all things new—starting at the edges!

Doesn't that remind you of Jesus' mother Mary's Magnificat? She sang how God has:

• Scattered the proud
• Brought down the powerful
• Lifted up the lowly
• Filled the hungry with good things
• Sent the rich away empty

* * *
Jesus' mikvah or baptism wasn't the same as our Trinitarian baptism into Father, Son, Holy Spirit. It was more of a new beginning for the nation, with the individual, the smallest unit participating as part of the larger whole.

Our Trinitarian baptism is a sacrament, a means of grace, a mighty act of God. As the Apostle Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 5:17, in baptism we became part of the new creation.

We famously consider Jesus baptism a Trinitarian theophany, or revelation of all three persons of the trinity. Theo = God; Phan = revealing, showing forth. And there are similarities between Jesus' baptism and ours.

Baptism begins Jesus' public ministry; baptism begins our public ministries outside of the immediate household. On this day many churches have a renewal of baptismal vows; today we gave thanks for our baptism with water and word, as we remembered and renewed God claiming, calling, and sending us in baptism.

* * *
But where are we as we celebrate the Baptism of Jesus? We're in the season of Epiphany that emphasizes Jesus as light of the world, God's salvation for everyone everywhere. We often symbolize that by light that reaches around the globe and can't be extinguished.

Light was the first element of creation. Without light there is no life.

We try to prayerfully honor our baptismal calling to work for justice, to act in ways that increase the greater good and maybe result in Good Trouble!

However, this country and the world, as well as most of us are in pain, loss – full of uncertainty about the future that's never a known factor; we're unsure more than usual of our next move or what tomorrow will bring.

Though we can't neglect or ignore those big concerns, let's try to focus on the micro level as we live out our baptism during this season of Epiphany.

Let's be light and life to each other at home – work – school – church. Let's how up for each other. And please tell each other what you need. Don't assume anyone read minds.

• We can do this!
• We are baptized!
• Amen!
* * *
Again today Jesus invites us to the Table of Grace. Jesus welcomes everyone to a taste of the New Creation where all is healed, all is whole, where creation's bounty knows no limits, where love embraces all.

Come, let us eat, for lo, the feast is spread.
Come, let us drink for lo, the cup is poured.

You are welcome.
I am welcome.
We are welcome!

To God alone be glory.
Amen!

Losing Moses on the Freeway

Here's a shorter version of my original blog about this book.

• Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord and all the ordinances; and all the people answered with one voice, and said, "All the words that the Lord has spoken we will do." —Exodus 24:3

• Now behold, one came and said to Jesus, "Good Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?" So Jesus said to him, "Why do you call me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments." —Matthew 19:16-17

• The way we know we've been transferred from death to life is that we love our brothers and sisters. Anyone who doesn't love is as good as dead. —1 John 3:14

• Blessed are those who do his commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city. Revelation 22:14

from the baptismal liturgy:

"In Christian love you have presented these children for Holy Baptism. You should, therefore, faithfully bring them to the services of God's house, and teach them the Lord's Prayer, the Creed, and the Ten Commandments. As they grow in years, you should place in their hand the Holy Scriptures…"

Serendipitously I happened to buy a book by former New York Times foreign correspondent Chris Hedges; it's Losing Moses on the Freeway: The 10 Commandments in America.

In the author's story I recognize major parts of my own journey. At the beginning, the author explains God gave us the Sinai Covenant, the ten words – decalogue or commandments – to enable and sustain community—:

"They [the commandments] were for the ancients, and are for us, the rules that, when honored, hold us together and when dishonored lead to alienation, discord and violence."

Chris Hedges opens the first chapter, Mystery, with his experience as a young seminarian serving a people and a church in the inner-city Boston neighborhood of Roxbury. Its normative violence and human degradation, crumpling, decaying physical infrastructure, pervasive aura of wastedness and death amounted to a setting he'd not previously known (and probably hadn't imagined).

On page 18 Hedges, son of a pastor, admits in words identical to what I've said and written dozens of times over the past few years, "The church was part of my daily rhythm. I look at the world through the eyes it gave me." Also parallel to my experience he says, "But I also knew the church's dark side, its self-righteous smugness, its crushing piety, the way it used religion to exalt itself and how it often masked human cruelty behind the quest for virtue and piety." [page 19] To that I'll add the petty viciousness, self-centeredness, and destructiveness of both local and judicatorial church politics.

I relate to the author's anger as he chronicles [page 11] smashing a glass bottle against the front door of the church building as "…an ending, a final conclusion to a life spent in the powerful and claustrophobic embrace of the church. It is meant to be a break from God. But you trade one god for another. This is how life works. We all have gods."

For myself, the unanticipated separation from full participation in the church to which I'd devoted years of my life and that had played a central role in shaping my goals, lifestyle, and worldview is like experiencing my own death.

On page 11 Hedges says we circle back to the origins of our lives, "if not to embrace it, then to understand how it shaped us, to examine with less heat and anger our marks and scars."

I'm still examining the mosaic in order to find my place, just as I try to discern ways I've helped create it as it has created and recreated me.

On page 175 the author wisely reminds us "They [the commandments] do not call us to practice total self-abnegation, empowering others, as I did at first in Roxbury, to abuse us. They call us rather toward mutual respect and mutual self-sacrifice." In words from a pastor with whom I worked alongside, "God calls us to serve, but not to be walked all over."

To illustrate his advice of setting (physical, in this case) boundaries so you won't be broken and violated, Hedges gives the example of Martin Luther King, Jr. walking from Montgomery to Memphis with a detachment from the National Guard. [pages 29-30]

From the Holy Communion liturgy in the Book of Common Prayer:

God spake these words, and said:

I am the Lord thy God who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have none other gods but me.

Lord have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law.

Examine your lives and conduct by the rule of God's commandments, that you may perceive wherein you have offended in what you have done or left undone, whether in thought, word, or deed. …

Like Israel formed in the searing heat and God's minimal yet faithful supply of the exodus desert, we are a people, a nation. In Lord's Day worship we retell, re-enact in baptism and the Eucharist the meta-narrative of our deliverance from death into life, of Jesus' death and resurrection. Although sometimes I think I loved the Church more than I loved Jesus, after beginning really to hear my story, someone asked me why on earth I'd remained in the church at all and I replied, "This is where I find the sacraments!"

In the Love chapter: "But by giving up parts of ourselves for others, by accepting that we must be willing to lose life to create and preserve life, we honor the core of the commandments. The commandments hold out to us the possibility of love." [page 173] Chris Hedges [page 174]: "The covenant offered by the commandments, the covenant of life, is the covenant of love. It is a covenant that recognizes that all life is sacred and love is the force that makes life together possible. … But it is never too late to turn back. Atonement permits a new way of being. It calls us to life." [pages 173-175]

We people of Maundy Thursday have received Jesus' New Commandment, the mandate of love faithful unto death; by faith and in the Spirit we have infinite access to Jesus Christ's atonement for the buying back, the redemption, for the life of all creation.

Then Moses took the book of the covenant, and read it in the hearing of the people; and they said, "All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient." —Exodus 24:7

Here we will take the wine and the water;
here we will take the bread of new birth,
here you shall call your sons and your daughters,
call us anew to be salt for the earth.

Give us to drink the wine of compassion;
give us to eat the bread that is you;
nourish us well, and teach us to fashion
lives that are holy and hearts that are true.

Marty Haugen, Here in This Place/Gather Us In, © 1982 GIA Publications, Inc.
• my Amazon review: law that binds; commands that free

Five Minute Friday :: Path

• Five Minute Friday :: Path Linkup

A couple years ago we wrote to the prompt follow. We can't follow a better path than the one I wrote about then, and I couldn't express it as well today as I did during Lent 2023. Today I'm using a version of the same graphic because whatever path Jesus shows us; wherever he goes, we will follow.

You know it's about the journey and not about the destination. We talk about a walk by faith. Not a run, jog, sprint, or race. Not a leisurely stroll, either. Almost nine years ago we had Journey as a FMF prompt, too.


A Path

For today let's consider only a small part of the journey, a piece of the path with its switchbacks and surprises, because originally the word journey was about a single day.

Where one day's path begins and ends. What happens during the hours from sunup to sundown, or more realistically, when we get out of bed (any time from a couple of hours before sunrise to a couple of hours after) and when we go to bed and try to go to sleep, which usually is a few hours after the sun goes down.

How do we discern (to use that fancy spiritual term) each day's path? Is it a copy of the previous day? Do we follow an hour by hour schedule someone else outlined for us? Do we separate the path into segments that could be labeled individual, family, work, and other-elsewhere? Does one run into another? Do they happen in different locations? Do we have our list or someone's else's list that we check off as we finish each item?

How much a part of the larger whole does a single day feel? Does one day help hold your family together, help your workplace run smoothly, or maybe contribute a tiny piece to fulfilling your dreams? Does your path for any given day include physical paths like those in your garden or a nearby public park? Do you drive on city streets or urban freeways? Does an unpaved road or neighborhood sidewalk path play any part in your lengths of days? How would you illustrate your path in pen and ink, in pencil, in watercolor, with any kind of art? What would your journal or daybook say about your path?

I'm asking those questions for myself, and I'd love to talk about your answers and your path.

# # #

"I will follow you wherever you go I will follow…"
Luke 9:57, Matthew 8:19

Epiphany 2C

Intro

Tony Campolo, "The kingdom of God is a party." Not like a party, not some semblance of a celebration, but the reign of heaven on earth is the real thing.

This is MLK weekend. The USA and many other countries have been impacted with frightening political, social, and economic uncertainties. Unprecedented wildfires have leveled Los Angeles area neighborhoods. Wars and other armed conflicts simmer and explode across the globe.

John 2:1-11

¹ On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. ² Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. ³ When the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus said to him, "They have no wine." ⁴ And Jesus said to her, "Woman, what concern is that to you and to me? My hour has not yet come." ⁵ His mother said to the servants, "Do whatever he tells you."

⁶ Now standing there were six stone water jars for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. ⁷ Jesus said to them, "Fill the jars with water." And they filled them up to the brim. ⁸ He said to them, "Now draw some out, and take it to the chief steward." So they took it.

⁹ When the steward tasted the water that had become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the steward called the bridegroom ¹⁰ and said to him, "Everyone serves the good wine first, and then the inferior wine after the guests have become drunk. But you have kept the best wine until now."

¹¹ Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.

Background

So far in this year of grace and season of revelation we've waited for God in our midst, we've been awed at the nativity of the infant Savior, we've met visitors from the East bearing gifts, we've joined a crowd alongside the Jordan.

After his riverside baptism by his cousin John the Baptist that all four gospels include, each gospel brings us a different version of Jesus' first act of public ministry. How can that be? Most likely they all happened around the same time, but each writer chose a particular one because it fit their perspective better.

The community surrounding John the beloved disciple writes about Jesus' signs rather than miracles. A miracle implies suspension of natural laws (which sometimes is the case, and sometimes there is a logical explanation), but a sign points beyond itself to a place, event, person, or idea—in this case, to Jesus. The Greek here is like our word semiotic that relates to signs, symbols, meanings. This gospel includes seven signs and seven "I Am" statements from Jesus. In Hebrew numerology, seven is the number of perfection or completion.


New Creation

In Matthew and Luke, after incarcerated John the Baptist wonders about Jesus being "the one who is to come," Jesus replies "go tell John what you see and hear: blind see; lame walk; diseased become clean; dead are raised! poor receive good news."

• Luke 7:20-22

• Matthew 11:2-5

These events fulfill John's signs.

John's gospel brings us the most explicit new creation.

• In the beginning … God –Genesis 1:1
• In the beginning … was the word –John 1:1

logos, word connotes both origin (where this came from) and immanence (what this might become). Does that sound theological?

On the seventh day God finished the work. –Genesis 2:2
"It is finished!" –John 19:30

• And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden… –Genesis 2:8

The garden of Jesus' burial and resurrection becomes the new garden of Eden

• Now there was a garden in the place where Jesus was crucified, and in the garden was a new tomb in which no one ever had been laid. And so, because it was the Jewish day of Preparation and the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there. –John 9:41-42

The first day of the week is the eighth day of creation, the first day of the new creation.

• Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. –John 20:1
• Supposing him [Jesus] to be the gardener… –John 20:15b

Of the four canonical gospels, John brings us the most fully realized eschatology (protology is the word about first things, about origins; eschatology is the word about last things, about conclusions)—the clearest right here and right now of the reign of heaven on earth. A wedding party perfectly fits that worldview!


Today's Good News

This reading begins, "On the third day." In that place and time, the third day – Tuesday – was considered the best day for a wedding. But as Easter people, we also recognize the third day as the day of resurrection that initiates the new creation. And back then and there, an extravagant wedding party where everyone gets more than the dayenu or "it would have been enough" of the Passover song would be a primary indicator of the messianic age.

Cana in Galilee was disreputable gentile territory known for thieves and petty criminals. This wedding was not at an elite venue or an aspirational destination. Jesus performed this sign among regular, ordinary, working class people. Most of the guests and reception attendants probably lived nearby; some may have worked in the vineyard.

A wedding is an occasion to party; a wedding brings families together and gathers a community in one place for a single purpose. Whatever is happening elsewhere in the world, a wedding hopes for and promises a future. The couple getting married trusts that a future will arrive.

This isn't the old band Canned Heat Going Up the Country singing about "where the water tastes like wine." This is water that has become wine, and "you have kept the best wine until now!" –John 2:10


Where We Live

At the start of his public ministry Jesus attends a party and makes the party even better, in a preview of the rest of his time on earth. But two thousand years after Jesus' death and resurrection, we still experience death, disease, destruction, deadly fires, nations at war, a threat of government that is not by the people, of the people, or for the people.

Evidently a recent article in The Atlantic informed readers we need to party more. It was behind a paywall and no one provided a summary, but I agree.

After the 911 attack on the World Trade Center, although we didn't exactly rejoice with a block party, two days later on Thursday evening several churches in our neighborhood gathered to celebrate Eucharist, a meal with the risen Christ. Here's one of my reflections about it:

• 911 :: 22 years later

Literally in spite of everything we glanced into all creation healed and whole. We briefly lived in that future moment God dreams of and calls us to help create. Did you know the chasuble the person presiding at Eucharist vests in is the wedding garment of the messianic feast?

To paraphrase Cornel West, "We are people of hope. Why do we party on Friday night? Why do we go to church on Sunday?"

Because the Kingdom of God, the Reign of Heaven is a party!

Five Minute Friday :: Hurry

Mid-June 2015 along Interstate Highway 8 in San Diego, California


• Five Minute Friday :: Hurry Linkup

Intro

FMF host Kate has been participating in a study of the gospel according to John at her church. When she mentioned they're using a book by Melissa Spoelstra, I lit up because I remembered Melissa's excellent study on Joseph and forgiveness I read and reviewed.

Although Kate observed that Jesus never seemed to hurry through his (three year long, according to John) public ministry, that really depends on which gospel account you're considering. John's Jesus feels focused, calm, and deliberate, because *even* more than synoptics Mark, Luke, and Matthew, John brings us realized eschatology of the right here, right now of the reign of heaven on earth. Celebrating at a wedding party is Jesus' first act of public ministry in John, so we've got the astonishing goods that happen "on the third day" at this very moment, in this very place, and it only will get better.

John is the latest gospel, and in many ways it's an outlier from the other three that made the canonical cut.

However, when we read Mark, the earliest and shortest gospel, all the action is urgent and the Savior moves nonstop. In Mark the transitional word "immediately, straightway/straightaway" occurs at least forty times. Just sayin'…


Hurry

As I write to Hurry alongside Kate's roadway traffic image, the vehicular freeway congestion and pollution that has emerged as an icon of American haste and ambition won't escape me. The worst part is that so few of us differentiate between ideas, activities, and outcomes that need to be treated as urgent, that must be attended to post-haste, and those that can take their time, those many that fare much better if they have time to wait, sprout, then finally blossom and bloom.

The day I took these photos along "The 8," or Interstate Highway 8 in Mission Valley, San Diego, I was on my way to a noontime meeting and intentionally captured the road without cars. That probably would have been impossible in Los Angeles, but San Diego is slower paced, hurries less, and leans into its small town heritage and personality more readily than places like ultra megalopolis Los Angeles (yet the city of LA has neighborhoods zoned for horses!). Does that mean San Diegans are better at discerning whether or not to hurry? To a limited extent, yes.

Whether within our family, at work, sharing the gospel, or caring for ourselves, we need to discern when to hurry ("time is of the essence!") and when hurrying is unnecessary or counter productive.


Heaven on Earth

Along with John's, the synoptic gospels all acknowledge the reign of heaven, God's Kingdom already is here on earth. A couple of proof texts, though God's presence, love, healing, and hope fills all the gospels:

• But if I cast out demons with the finger [power] of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you. Luke 11:20

The reign of heaven is here.

• But if it is by the Spirit of God I cast out demons, surely the kingdom of God has come unto you. Matthew 12:28

If. Since. Then. Surely. Without a doubt.

In the Spirit of Pentecost God's reign continues with the church in the world as the body of Christ. We often don't feel the calm deliberation of John's Jesus, but I love how we're slowed down and unhurried when we assemble on the Lord's day. In words from one of my favorite more recent hymns we acknowledge:

God is here!
As we your people meet to offer praise and prayer. …
Here are symbols to remind us of our lifelong need of grace;
here are table, font, and pulpit; here the cross has central place.

Written by Fred Pratt Green; please sing it to the tune Abbot's Leigh
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Five Minute Friday :: Season

• Five Minute Friday :: Season Linkup

Intro

It's always reassuring to remember our lives have seasons similar to creation's. In addition to clear "life seasons" of struggle, growth, plateau, reversal, and glory like the weather outside, we also experience hints of different seasons within any current one. Have you ever had a sunny July day turn into a horizontal downpour with near zero visibility? Or been surprised by mid-February melting snow and bright crocuses when you know the calendar says spring is weeks away? I've mentioned human seasons enough in this blog; for this Five Minute Friday let's conside our planetary winter, spring, summer, autumn. Their necessity, their interrelatedness, their gifts. This week's five minutes hasn't turned into a book, but the subject of season was so fun I kept on writing.

In the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, when no plant of the field was yet in the earth and no vegetation of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was no one to till the ground, but a stream would rise from the earth and water the whole face of the ground—

then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. Out of the ground the Lord God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.… Genesis 2:4b-9

The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it. Genesis 2:15

Seasons

While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.
Genesis 8:22


Winter

Five Novembers ago I blogged Bulbs Roots Beauty about the gift of winter. When I lived in places with cold, snowy winters, though going outside to work, school, or other activities often was a major challenge, I enjoyed the coziness of being inside looking out, especially if I didn't need to go outside soon. Related to winter I love warm sweaters, and (of course) body and spirit warming savory soups and hot drinks. What are your faves?


Spring

Spring's colorful new growth—how did this happen after winter?

The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and reburied; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.
Matthew 13:44

In his Reading the Parables, pastor-professor Richard Lischer quotes from a sermon he happened upon: "When Jesus was taken from the cross, they hid his body in a tomb and then sealed it lest someone find him. For 3 days, Jesus himself was the Treasure hidden in the field; for 3 days he was the seed lying dormant in the ground. Jesus was a human parable of God's love and power."

A seed of God's love and power…

What are your fave things about spring? I especially enjoy lighter brighter colors in our natural surroundings and in spring clothing. They both remind us spring is a beginning of new life that hasn't grown or developed much into what it will become.


Summer

Always my favorite! From spring greens intensifying as days grow longer and then shorter days but more sunshine, more parties, more fun, and better times. I don't want summer to end because I love the hot days, now and then cloudbursts, bright, light, mostly casual clothes, sometimes spontaneous get togethers and outings. What are your summer joys?


Autumn

Autumn is my most real and best new year, because back in my day and back when many others were younger, that's when school started again. New beginnings, a new classroom, new teachers, books, (notebooks, pencils, pens, markers, crayons) classes, and activities. And there's even something new and novel as the natural world starts to slow down, bright summer colors fade and mellow, life at the same time deepens and broadens. Despite summer being my best season, I always appreciate fall's sense of wisdom and maturity, of knowing what battles to choose and which ones to ignore, of getting into warmer clothes that somehow always look like better quality and better styling. How about your autumns?


Seasons

…Mary turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?" Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away." Jesus said to her, "Mary!" She turned and said to him in Hebrew, "Rabbouni!" (which means Teacher).
John 20:14-16

Supposing him to be the gardener??

But Jesus is the gardener. Jesus is the seed that is the Word of God that is the seed. Without a seed, without a beginning, (without the Spirit,) there is no growth or life or resurrection from death.

And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden … [and] made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food…

Yahweh is a fertility God! Created in God's image, God calls us and we become people who care for the land, protect creation's integrity. Without a seed or source there's no growth, no fruit.

The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it.
Genesis 2:15

The earth, the land, the garden first was gift of grace before it was a covenantal charge and endeavor. Earth and land and garden are gifts for all four seasons, earthbound realities for every one of our summers, springs, winters, and autumns.

What's your favorite and best?

Five Minute Friday :: Watch

• Five Minute Friday :: Watch Linkup

Patterned after the church's liturgical practice of praying the canonical hours but in remembrance and anticipation of Easter dawn, there's a tradition of Morning Watch. The fourth and last segment of the night watch – the morning watch – happens from 3-6 a.m.. During this final watch of the night, darkness gently eases into the quiet early light of Easter dawn and God's Glory softly splashes over all creation.

This week my weekly lectionary-based scripture blog was feeding five thousand in Matthew 14:13-21 at "a deserted place, and the hour is now late." (Matthew 14:15) As time unwinds, sunlight retreats, evidence of civilization and active population wanes, we humans tend to assume declining hope, maybe immanent death. We typically hope, watch, and wait for new life on sunny days at centers where people interact, create community, do commerce, and generally demonstrate evidence of life. After all, our active watching has shown that's frequently the case.

Think back to your own experience and check out the witness of scripture. In all four gospel narratives, the very large and very hungry crowd of 5,000+ got fed so fully there were leftovers—completely unheard of for poorer people in that place and time! A beyond bountiful, life-restoring meal even happened as night descended, and while they still were in the desolate place they'd followed Jesus to.

A verse I often return to reminds us watching for daylight and established activity in order to welcome new life and new beginnings isn't always necessary:

Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been rolled away from the tomb. John 20:1

Our morning watch happens whatever the time of day, season of life, wherever we are, in whatever circumstance. Let's expect resurrection!

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Five Minute Friday :: Sunshine

• Five Minute Friday :: Sunshine Linkup

This time I'm picking up words and design from my poster for Earth Day 2012. Why not add in some "Walking on Sunshine and don't it feel good!" from Katrina and the Waves?


…live in the sunshine
swim in the sea
drink the wild air…

Ralph Waldo Emerson


Southern California has become world-renowned – more accurately "well known" – for May Grey and June Gloom, two months that contradict the stereotype of a perpetually sunshiny southland.

Water is life for sure. But in very the beginning God spoke "let there be light" and there was light. Because it was a "real" physical thing, God was able to separate the light from the darkness. [Genesis 1:3-4] God then designated the greater light in the sky to rule over the days. [Genesis 1:16-18]

There's nothing like sunshine! As you walk out the door and your whole being gets sun-kissed by the glow and the warmth of the sky's great light, it feels like everything's okay again, after all. I often tell people I love early morning light. I love the quality of late afternoon light. But in both cases it's not simply sunshine, because there are no shadows unless there's light and my enchantment comes from sunshine and shadow interweaving and dancing as they create space for each other.

It definitely was more than a couple of years ago when I asked the Vacation Bible School kids what it meant for us to be the body of Christ, and one of them yelled, "that we can be city lights!"

Two Wednesdays ago we were planning worship on zoom (as tiresome as virtual everything has become, for meetings with a certain content and particular expectations that really don't require intense in-person time plus lunch, zooming ain't all that terrible)… as we were planning worship via zoom and wondered what music would help illustrate Matthew's Sermon on the Mount, I instantly thought of Kari Jobe and "We are the light of the world; we are the city on a hill" along with "Light of the World" by Lauren Daigle. It even was bonus time because I already knew both songs had several good videos we could use and maybe later we could learn to sing both songs.

Whatever it looks like outside our windows, May Grey, June Gloom, a cloudbreak or a snowstorm, we can take Emerson's counsel to immerse ourselves in creation so we're all walking on sunshine all the time—and don't it feel good?!

So yeah. Jesus in Matthew's gospel tells us we are the salt of the earth, the light of the world, the city on a hill. We are city lights. We are sunshine!

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Sermon on 07 May

On the Fifth Sunday of Easter I guest preached again. They follow the Narrative Lectionary that follows the autumn through spring academic year and gives the formal lectionary a summertime vacation. This is Matthew's year in both NL and RCL, thus my references to Matthew. They plan to study more of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount during the summer.

Instead of interpreting for the current context, I decided to introduce Romans; enthusiastic feedback confirmed that was the best decision. As before, this is more notes than it is actual preached words (because I still use notes when I need a prompt).


• Romans 1:1-17

• Grace to you and peace from Jesus Christ, firstborn from the dead and the first fruits of the new creation. Amen!

Today we're celebrating live and we're celebrating virtual on Easter five! Easter isn't only a single glorious celebration, it's a fifty-day long season that occupies about one-seventh of the year. Today is the fifth Sunday of Easter, day 29.

We've been studying Matthew's gospel, but today we start several weeks in the letter or epistle to the church at Rome. These weeks will increase our understanding of Matthew when we return to the Sermon on the Mount during summer.

Letters or epistles in the NT were sent to various churches, often in a round robin style where content and comments got added before being sent to the next place. Unlike the gospels that mostly reflect on Jesus' life and ministry, epistles tend toward teaching and doctrines that the OT and Jesus' life reveal. The letters then in turn help clarify Jesus' teachings. Technically an epistle is a sent communication.

Paul/Saul of Tarsus wrote his epistles considerably earlier than the gospels were composed. I always need to remind myself these letters were so much earlier than the gospels, yet they also reflect upon and interpret Jesus of Nazareth's ministry. The NT includes seven Paul wrote for sure; a few others bear his name as author, but weren't written by him. Back then they didn't have copyright concerns, and to attribute what you wrote to a famous person was a compliment that also would get you more readers. The NT also contains letters written quite a while later by other authors. Those would include Titus and Timothy (both attributed to Paul), Peter, James…

Letters or epistles tend toward teachings and doctrines derived from God's activity in the world, from the birth, life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ that other sections of scripture narrate.

Romans is the latest of Paul's letters. Today I'll talk about only chapter 1 that reveals some about the rest of the book. Romans includes theology of creation, redemption, and sanctification, along with words about the church. Theology about the Triune God! You could say Romans is Saint Paul's systematic theology. Systematics is the philosophical theology that outlines and structures its topics in logical ways. Among many others, Saint Augustine, John Calvin, and Karl Barth all wrote famous systematic theologies.

Although Romans' literary format is not a gospel, Paul uses the word gospel. Gospel means good news. Maybe you've seen the stage play musical, film, or TV show Godspell? That's gospel in Old English. In the Roman imperial context, gospel already was a known concept. They referred to the birth of the future emperor a gospel. Gospel most frequently described the returning conquering general's announcement of annihilating his enemies. Just as Christianity subverts, turns upside down, and redefines many existing concepts and practices, the Christian gospel is the Good News of God's redemption in Jesus Christ. Not only is it life rather than death; the gospel of Jesus Christ is the annihilation of death and the reign of life.

As Christians we usually say the Gospel of Jesus Christ, yet Paul refers to the gospel of God, so this isn't something new. The good news for creation of redemption and renewal is the way God always has acted. In verse 16 Paul says the gospel is "God's saving power." Because of this, we can follow many gospeled threads through the Hebrew scriptures.

Reading the New Testament, we find different nuances and emphases of Gospel. For Paul in particular the gospel is death and resurrection. The word evangelical is gospel in Greek! As people baptized into Jesus Christ, we are a gospeled community.

Romans 1:16-17 is huge in the history of the church. These verses were a kind of hinge between the church prior to the Reformation in the 16th century and the church after that. Since Martin Luther's excitedly zeroing in on these verses, church and academy sometimes have said we only need to trust or have faith in God, that the medieval Roman branch of the church was mistaken when it claimed our works or behaviors could reconcile or make us right with God. As we study this letter and when we return to Matthew, it's important to remember that Paul never separates faith or trust from obedience or works (our actions). Neither did Jesus. Neither does any of the Old Testament.

Paul calls himself an apostle, but we know he wasn't one of Jesus' original twelve followers. In scripture an apostle is someone who has seen the risen Christ. You may remember in the book of Acts when they're voting to find a twelfth to join the remaining ones after Judas of Iscariot's betrayal, they insisted it had to be a "witness to the resurrection," someone who had met Jesus crucified, Christ risen face to face: Acts 1:21-26 You've probably read the account of Paul's Conversion (also in Acts, chapter 9) when the risen Christ encounters Paul along the road? That event gave Paul apostolic qualification, just as our encounters with the Risen One make us apostles.

Paul introduces himself as an apostle, yet insists it's about BOTH being disciples or followers who learn from the teaching of the earthly Jesus AND about being apostles or sent people of the risen Christ. We've been in Matthew's gospel, where Matthew's Jesus is the ultimate teacher or rabbi. Jesus wants us, his followers to be the ultimate students or disciples, "taught persons." Disciple or apostle, it's a gift of God's grace.

An epistle is a sent communication; an apostle is a sent person.

We'll soon celebrate the day of Pentecost and the gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit we receive in baptism that enables us to follow Jesus as disciples and apostles.

I hope our study of Romans will broaden, deepen, and enhance our understanding of Jesus' teaching when we return to Matthew's gospel during the summer.

To God Alone Be Glory.

Amen!

Five Minute Friday :: Follow

• Five Minute Friday :: Follow Linkup

• Luke 9:57 I will follow you wherever you go … I will follow you.

• Matthew 8:19 I will follow you wherever you go … I will follow you.

There have been saints and martyrs in all eras whose passion for love, mercy, justice, and the reign of heaven on earth has led them to follow Jesus to the extent of forsaking their earthly lives. Jesus told us to follow him; a classic perspective says we follow Jesus to the cross, then to the empty grave, which feels especially appropriate during this season of Lent.

My header image isn't quite a labyrinth, yet if you follow the words you'll find yourself at the center that's also source and destination. My footer photo is the labyrinth a friend in Previous City designed and built for his Eagle Scout project.

If a stranger asked, what would you tell them following Jesus is about? You could tell them it's like a labyrinth that guides you unimpeded without dead ends but typically has a few surprising switchbacks that momentarily make it look as if you've gone backwards. You could say it's like following words of life – love of God and love of neighbor – to create healthy local community and ultimately, a global commonwealth.

You could tell them both religious and political leaders in Jesus' imperial context with its violence, poverty, and despair considered Jesus a major threat. In that case, what would following Jesus here and now look like?

You could tell the inquirer to follow you into worship where the sacraments / ordinances of baptism and holy communion are politically, socially, and culturally subversive. If you follow the visible words of the sacraments you'll find yourself at the center that's also source and destination.

Exodus 24:3 Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord and all the ordinances; and all the people answered with one voice, and said, "All the words that the Lord has spoken we will do."

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Sermon for 29 January

Intro:

These days I preach from notes, so typically I can't easily fill in the spaces and blog. Besides, a homily really is for a specific day and place, for "those people" in the best sense of the word. However, for 29 January I typed out a lot before making notes (church pastor requests guest preachers to send her some content beforehand—a good idea in many ways), and from the compliments plus my own perception I believe it went well, so here you go. Not surprisingly, the real life sermon was a few minutes longer than it blogs. Scripture was Matthew 6:7-14. During the autumn through spring academic year they follow the Narrative Lectionary that emphasizes the larger story of God and God's people. This year the NL twins with the Revised Common Lectionary with Matthew as the featured gospel.

Matthew Background

Today we continue in Matthew's gospel. Each of the four gospels has a distinctive personality, flavor, and style. Along with Mark and Luke, Matthew is one of the gospels that views Jesus' life and ministry in a similar way. In fact, all three contain a lot of the exact same content. Scholars believe authors of Luke and Matthew had a copy of Mark, so they literally copied and pasted big chunks.

This is Matthew's year in both of the lectionaries that suggest scriptures to read and study, so we'll spend a lot of time on Matthew to learn more about the Jesus Matthew presents, more about the way Jesus teaches us to live.

Matthew starts out as the story of a new creation, biblios geneseos—the same word as Genesis, the very first book of the bible. According to Matthew, Jesus of Nazareth's birth, life, death, resurrection, and ascension initiates this new creation, new genesis. According to Jesus, our lives and ministries continue the new creation, the new genesis.

As Matthew's gospel progresses, Jesus provides formal instruction in the Sermon on the Mount and offers parables about the reign of heaven. We see Jesus healing diseases and confronting economic, religious, and governmental powers that be.


Sermon on the Mount

Today we continue with the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus' sermon on the mount has five sections that parallel the five books of Moses in the Torah or Pentateuch: Genesis, Exodus…

Through Moses God gave the people ten words or commandments at Mount Sinai. Jesus brings us words of life in the Sermon on the Mount on another hill or high ground, with a different style from the commands God gave us through Moses, yet like the ten words/decalogue, Jesus is all about our flourishing together in safe, healthy, productive community. Jesus' entire ministry shows us how to live and love together in service, how to be church together.

Jesus was a rabbi or teacher who moved around a lot. For Matthew, Jesus is the ultimate teacher who wants his followers to be the best learners ever. As Pastor MAH mentioned, it's interesting that Matthew is the only gospel that uses the word church or ecclesia; we mostly know the word "church" from the letters or epistles. This called out assembly (us) is the Roman City Council, the Los Angeles City Council, the New England Town Meeting that gathers together, deliberates together, and in our case, prays and worships together.

Starting with the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus' entire ministry shows us how to live and love together in service, how to be church together. Rabbi Jesus wants us to be the best learners ever. Jesus' ministry leads to healthy community. When we follow Jesus, our ministries lead to good community.


Jesus' Model Prayer / What is Prayer?

Today we're considering the model prayer Jesus taught his followers. We call it the Lord's Prayer, and almost all worship services include it in traditional or contemporary language.

But first, what is prayer? Prayer is communication with God. Prayer takes many forms. Sometimes we read prayers the church has treasured for a long time, such as from the liturgy and devotional books. Sometimes we speak words from our heart. Scripture includes many prayers. The book of Psalms was the prayer book and the hymnal of the synagogue; Christian hymnals include many songs based on psalms. There's silent prayer when you sit, stand, or maybe lie down to bask in God's presence. The apostle Paul told us to "pray always," which is an attitude of openness to God. You may have heard we usually become closest to those we talk with the most.

Prayer is communication with God. As we pray, God also communicates with us.

Let's look at this particular prayer Jesus taught his followers. Jesus outlined this prayer not necessarily for us to repeat the exact words as we do every week in worship, but to follow its general content.


Lord's Prayer/ Our Father

It starts out with addressing God and requesting God's name be holy or set apart. In that culture, a name reflected or described the essence of a person. A few months ago Pastor MH preached a sermon about Names of God. That could make an excellent study or journal entry for us to continue.

"May your kingdom come, your will be done" asks God to make the world heaven on earth.

Daily bread or bread for tomorrow? Food is essential! We can't keep on with other endeavors without food, water, sleep… In his Small Catechism Martin Luther explains "daily bread" is shorthand for everything we need. That would include solid housing and safe streets, streets and roads to get us from here to there, good government, functional families. Daily bread may include high-speed internet, too.

What else is essential for all of us? What is essential for you and your family? What would your "daily bread" list of essentials include? Is there anything you might leave off your list?


Forgive us our debts or sins

"Forgive us our debts or sins" is a huge one for everyone. Some versions of Jesus' prayer ask forgiveness for trespasses, which sounds like entering someone else's property without permission (in many senses, it is). In Jesus' world sin and debt essentially were the same thing. Tenant farmers, people who fished the sea, and those who sold goods and wares often found themselves owing their soul to landlords and to the government.

In this year 2023, the world is full of financial debt and obligation. Many people are in serious credit card debt from trying to stay afloat during Covid. However, this prayer also asks to forgive (the opposite of to give) all those ways we've offended people (friends, relatives, acquaintances, etc.) close at hand and on the other side of the planet, our lack of justice to creation, everything we've done to hinder our own well-being as individuals.

Forgive is far from saying and acting as if those sins and offenses are ok and didn't do harm. Forgiveness admits and acknowledges the serious wrong someone else or we ourselves have caused.

Forgiveness has nothing to do with tolerating sin. Forgiveness is not about minimizing or denying sin.

When I forgive I've turned the wrongdoing over to God so that sin no longer is a debt or burden to me or to my community. Literally giving the sin to God means the sin or offense becomes a debt to God. Forgiving a person releases them from our lives and turns the person and the offense over to God. And sometimes it's necessary to physically release a person from our lives, as well.


Shalom

We've taken a short look at the prayer Jesus taught his first followers, the prayer scripture gives us to learn from Jesus.

Last week Pastor MH talked about shalom, the peace that's more than absence of conflict. The Lord's Prayer or Our Father prays, begs, and pleads for the reign or rule of heaven on earth.

Heaven on earth is the fulness of shalom. It begins with eliminating obvious physical, emotional, and interest conflicts, but shalom goes beyond that. Shalom is enough of everything we need to live healthy lives. As Martin Luther explained, actual daily bread or food (water, shelter, etc.) is only one part of our request in the Lord's Prayer. Shalom is integrity and honesty with each other here in community and with everyone we meet outside. Shalom is the Good News of the gospel fully lived out every day, everywhere we go.

Jesus the master teacher or rabbi teaches us how to be church together. Jesus wants all of us to be the best learners ever who pray, hope, and act to bring this world the new creation Matthew's gospel is about. We beg God to bring heaven to earth. We pray for the reign of shalom. We act in ways that welcome shalom.


Table of Grace

Again today Jesus invites us to the table of grace. This feast of life is about heaven on earth—the reign of life right here and right now. The Lord's Supper, Holy Communion, brings shalom into the world. All are forgiven. All is healed. All is whole. Everyone has enough. In the Lord's Supper we experience the new creation, if only for a fleeting moment.

Come, let us eat, for lo, the bread is spread!
Come, let us drink, for lo, the cup is poured!

You are welcome.
I am welcome.
We are welcome.

Amen? Amen!

To God alone be glory! Amen!