John 13:1-17 This meditation is really a Maundy Thursday meditation, but here it is on the Saturday before Holy Week. Jesus says to you today: “A new commandment I give unto you, That you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another” (John 13:34). This name, “Maundy Thursday,” comes from the Latin words mandatum novum, or “new commandment,” taken from John 13:34. Now why is this a new commandment? The commandments to love God... Read more
John 12:44-50 I’ve got a radical idea! Let’s try an experiment in reading this passage. How would it enrich our understanding of God’s Word today and our understanding of our call to be the apostles (“sent ones”) and martyrs (“witnesses”) if we read Jesus’ loud cry of verses 44-50, substituting our names for His? With the obvious understanding that neither you nor I is God or can speak for God in exactly the same way as Jesus Christ, the Son,... Read more
John 12:34-43 In this passage, John 12:34-43, we have one of the most striking contrasts between the presence and grace of God and the resistance of men to God. Then God said, “Let there be light, and there was light. And God saw that the light was good; and God divided the light from the darkness.” What a beautiful – and terrifying – sight it must have been to see God divide the light from the dark in the Creation! ... Read more
John 12:20-33 “The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified.” “Here comes the good part,” I’m thinking to myself. My hopes and dreams are fanned into life by the breath of Jesus’ words, and once again I can’t wait for Him to be glorified. I am greatly encouraged as well by His words to me, saying, “If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me, and where I am, there My servant will be also.” Wonderful! I... Read more
John 12:12-19 “Behold, your King is coming to you, lowly and riding on a donkey.” John’s Gospel doesn’t have the word “lowly,” as does Zechariah’s prophecy, but it is the word I most want to focus on this morning. The disciples did not at this time understand these things. Only after Jesus was glorified did they remember and understand them. Only after Jesus died on the Cross, was raised from the dead by the power of God, ascended into heaven,... Read more
John 12:1-11 I love the family from Bethany! It was obvious how much the Lord loved them and how much they loved Him in return. In this love, both that which is received and that which is given, they are a picture of our lives lived in communion and love with the Holy Trinity. For whatever we have received from God we are required to give back in gratitude and love. Before we turn to the picture of love, we... Read more
Mark 13:24-37 “Watch ye, for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cock-crowing, or in the morning: lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping!” These words are one of the opening sentences for Evening Prayer from the Prayer Book during the season of Advent, but they are appropriate for every season, every day, and every minute of our lives. I love to use... Read more
Anglican Religious Identity and History – Part I In an earlier blog, I offered the following one-sentence definition of Anglicanism: “Anglicanism is the life of the Catholic Church that was planted in England in the first few centuries after Christ; reshaped decisively by the English Reformation that reformed the received catholic traditions and also by the Catholic revival of the nineteenth century other historical movements of the Spirit; and that has now been inculturated into independent, global churches.” Hidden in... Read more
Mark 13:14-23 For a number of reasons, I believe this passage and others like it are primarily about the cataclysmic events that happened in the first century. Without belaboring the point, it’s worth noting that Jesus is talking to His first century disciples and assuming that they will not only understand these things but also that these things will happen to them, and not necessarily to us (I don’t expect to be beaten in the synagogues and kicked out of... Read more
Mark 13:1-13 The situation that Jesus describes seems remotely close and familiar. It stretches back to the first century A.D. and all the way into my little study here in Tyler, Texas in the 21st century (it still seems cool and futuristic to me to say that I live in the 21st century!) What Jesus described is a world that is now, but is not yet complete. It is the bittersweet life that greets me every morning and tucks me... Read more
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