Posts

Image
  Saturday - 3rd Week of Lent Gospel – Luke 18:9-14 Turning Inward Anointing Stone, Church of Holy Sepulchre A young couple moves into a new neighborhood. The next morning while they are eating breakfast, the young woman sees her neighbor hanging the laundry outside. “That laundry is not very clean”, she said. “She doesn’t know how to wash correctly. Perhaps she needs better laundry soap.” Her husband looked on but remained silent.   Every time her neighbor would hang her washing to dry, the young woman would make the same comments. Sometime later, the woman was surprised to see a nice clean laundry on the line and said to her husband: “Look, she has learned how to wash correctly. I wonder who taught her this.”   The husband said, “No, dear!   I got up early this morning and cleaned our windows” The Pharisee and the Tax Collector!   Two very different individuals – one an elite and highly regarded member of Jewish society, a religious leader.   The ...
Post a Comment
Read more
Image
  Friday 3 rd Week of Lent Gospel – Mark 12:28-34 Love is the Answer, and the Question Chapel at Cana Finally!   A Pharisee/scribe asking Jesus an honest question and not looking to catch Him off-guard.     He actually seeks an honest response, and he then agrees with Jesus’ answer!   There are 616 precepts in Jewish Law and asking Jesus which one is the greatest is probably asking for trouble.   Jesus’ answer perfectly sums the entire Law in one simple reply.   Why obey all those precepts?   Love! Love is the answer.   I obey the law because I love the law-giver – God!   Because I want our relationship to be strong and to flourish. It’s that love of a parent for a child, the willingness to get up in the middle of the night to give them a glass of water even though you were sleeping soundly.   It’s a love that goes out of its way to comfort them when they are sick or skinned their knee.   It’s a love that joyfully shar...
Post a Comment
Read more
Image
  Thursday - 3rd Week of Lent -   Gospel – Luke 11:14-23 Fences Heiskell, TN One thing I have noticed after living here in Tennessee are FENCES!   Back in Chicago, we seem to use fences to keep out the neighbors, to hide ourselves from the world!   Tall 6-foot wooden fences surrounding our property!   We say it’s for privacy, but you have to wonder!   Here in the foothills of the Smoky Mountains, yes, there are plenty of fences.   But they are barbed wire or chicken wire; they are meant to protect the farm animals but still provide gorgeous views of the ‘family ponderosa’ , not hide it from the world!   Are you with me?   It feels like a rallying cry to the crowds in Les Miserables !   Or maybe it’s the whispered words of an older brother as he plots in secret with his siblings to raid the cookie jar!   But in today’s Gospel, Jesus expressed similar words to the crowds – you are either with me or against me!   It’s a ch...
Post a Comment
Read more