Preachrblog

“The Whip” Mark 15:6-15 Midweek Lent 4, March 27, 2019 6 Now at the feast he used to release for them one prisoner for whom they asked. 7 And among the rebels in prison, who had committed murder in the insurrection, there was a man called Barabbas. 8 And the crowd came up and began to ask Pilate to do as he usually did for them. 9 And he answered them, saying, “Do you want me to release for you the King of the Jews?” 10 For he perceived that it was out of envy that the chief priests had delivered him up. 11 But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have him release for them Barabbas instead. 12 And Pilate again said to them, “Then what shall I do with the man you call the King of the Jews?” 13 And they cried out again, “Crucify him.” 14 And Pilate said to them, “Why? What evil has he done?” But they shouted all the more, “Crucify him.” 15 So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released for them Barabbas, and having scourged[a] Jesus, he delivered him to be crucifie...

“A Murder, a Calamity, and a Patient Vinedresser” Luke 13:1-9 Lent 3, March 24, 2019 Lent is a good time to think about things more deeply and seriously, especially those things of the faith.   It is a time to ponder and meditate on deeper truths, perhaps more than we do even the rest of the year as Christians.   There is a serious tone.   A sober awareness of our sins that the Lenten scriptures place before us.   And of course, always, we have an eye on the destination – the Cross of Christ, Holy Week, Good Friday, etc. Today Jesus discusses the topic of suffering in our reading from Luke.   Suffering is an experience that is common to all human beings, at one time or another, in one form or another.   Living in this fallen and broken world, you simply can’t escape it.   And yet we seem to think otherwise.   It is in times of suffering, it seems, that people tend to either grow deeper and deeper in faith, or else at times suffering ...

“The Symbols of Lent” Thirty Pieces of Silver Matthew 26:15 and 27:3-10 [Judas said] “What will you give me if I deliver him over to you?” And they paid him thirty pieces of silver. Then when Judas, his betrayer, saw that Jesus[a] was condemned, he changed his mind and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders, 4 saying, “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.” They said, “What is that to us? See to it yourself.” 5 And throwing down the pieces of silver into the temple, he departed, and he went and hanged himself. 6 But the chief priests, taking the pieces of silver, said, “It is not lawful to put them into the treasury, since it is blood money.” 7 So they took counsel and bought with them the potter's field as a burial place for strangers. 8 Therefore that field has been called the Field of Blood to this day. 9 Then was fulfilled what had been spoken by the prophet Jeremiah, saying, “And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price ...

Luke 13:31-35 “O, Jerusalem” In 2007 I had the opportunity to visit the Holy Land.   It was a typical sight-seeing trip geared toward Christian pilgrims.   We saw all the usual sites, many of them churches.   One of the sites we stopped at was a church named “Dominus Flevit”, in Latin, “The Lord Wept”.   It was founded in the mid 1950s by the Roman Catholics to mark the location, half-way down the Mount of Olives, where Jesus stopped as he was approaching Jerusalem, the place where he wept over the city that would ultimately reject him.   It is one of the few churches that faces West instead of East, the same direction Jesus faced.   It is shaped like a teardrop, to symbolize Christ’s weeping.   And it also has, prominently featured, a beautiful mosaic of a hen gathering up her chicks, echoing these words of Jesus in our Gospel reading for today.   It’s a powerful image, a mother hen, brooding over her chicks.   Gathering them up ...

Ash Wednesday Symbols of Lent “Ashes”  Genesis 3:19 This Lenten Season, for our midweek series, we will ponder some of the symbols of Lent.  These are some of the tangible things, the items that we associate with this season of penitence and reflection.  They are taken mostly from the Passion narrative of our Lord – markers in the text that accompany different aspects of his suffering on our behalf. We will consider the crowing rooster, the 30 pieces of silver, the whip or scourge, the crown of thorns and the seamless coat of Christ.  May these images from the text of our Lord’s passion serve as windows to draw us in and consider the depth and breadth of both his suffering for our sin, but also of his great love for sinners. Today, however, Ash Wednesday, a slight departure from that.  The image before us is not directly from the Passion account, but rather it is in the name of the day – Ashes.  The symbol that marks the beginning of this season for...