Jesus had special friends. Among them were Mary and Martha of Bethany and their brother Lazarus. Some modern scholars think that Lazarus was “the Beloved Disciple” of the Gospel and the Epistle, and the disciple at the foot of the cross. We won’t really know until we are in the next life. Then we can…

In the story of the Good Samaritan that we just heard, where do the different characters end up? The robbers have done their foul deed and have walked off stage with whatever they stole from the traveler they attacked. The priest and the Levite have each continued on the way to Jericho after overlooking the…

“Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad for her, all you who love her,” it says in Isaiah 66:10. Shortly after the American Revolution, the newly constituted Episcopal Church of the United States devised a special set of prayers and lessons, called “propers,” to commemorate the Fourth of July and the newly won American independence from…

Today’s gospel reading doesn’t make Jesus look like a very good recruiter. He’s turning away willing volunteers! What’s more, at first he seems to be discounting the value of home and family, the very things we hold most dear. “The Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” Does following Jesus really mean becoming…

Last December, after a Fort Worth, Texas, policeman was killed in the line of duty, his family spent a gut-wrenching week, planning and attending the funeral and having many conversations with those whose lives had crossed that of their loved one. When all was said and done, this young officer’s mother realized that one story…

Shadows can be both fun and frightening. Do you remember when you were a child, marveling at your shadow, especially in the late afternoon when shadows are long? Or making shadow pictures by holding your hands certain ways? Then there is the other side of shadows. Like the uncertainty of who is approaching you in…

What wonderful images we have in today’s passages. We have prophets, raisings from the dead, a never-ending supply of food, onlookers being both amazed and terrified. It’s the Easter story over and over – amazing and terrifying for the people of that day. We, of course, can still be amazed, but we’re not terrified any…