What a hope there is in the vision of Isaiah! Food for the hungry. Vintage wine for the parched spirit. An end to death for ever. No more war, no more shame, no more humiliation, no more violence, no more poverty. For every suffering of Isaiah’s exiled and defeated people he promises an opposite joy. …
Category Archives: Berkeley
Sunday Week 24 Year A
Is God good, merciful and forgiving or is God angry, vindictive and merciless? That’s the problem that the parable seems to be dropping us into. A God who has two faces. On the one hand a gentle ruler who is moved in the depths of his guts by the plea of the slave who somehow …
Sunday Week 23 Year A
I hate Ezekiel. He’s a prophet to give prophets a bad name: While Jeremiah is driven near mad with having doom to speak and Amos is overwhelmed by his passion for the poor and even Isaiah seems at least genuinely hurt by the word of exile he bears, the voice of Ezekiel always seems a …
Corpus Christi Sunday Year A
Pentecost, Trinity Sunday, Body and Blood of Christ—this time of year is like a sanctuary for endangered species with strange and exotic theological mysteries huddled together in one place for easy viewing. Easy viewing doesn’t make for easy preaching though, so I was delighted to discover a tidbit about “Manna” that at least got me …
Sunday Week 6 of Easter Year A
“I will not leave you orphaned,” says Jesus in today’s gospel. “I will not leave you orphaned; I will come back to you.” He is going away. Jesus went away a first time in his death on the cross. And though he came back from the dead, he came back changed. He didn’t just come …
Sunday Week 4 of Easter Year A
You should all be glad that you haven’t had to live with me for these last couple of weeks because I’ve done nothing but moan about this gospel reading. I do not like it. In fact, I hate this reading! It troubles me, it irritates me. Well, since I’ve had to suffer it, I thought …
Sunday Week 1 of Easter Year A
At the end of the film “Terminator” Arnold Schwarzenegger—part-man, part-machine—is finally dying after being crushed, boiled and baked. Stripped right down to his metal skeleton he utters his last words—”I’ll be back!” Schwarzenegger was the bad guy, but it’s the same for the goodies. At the end of another film—”Aliens 3″—our hero, Ripley, gives her …
Sunday Week 5 of Lent Year A
It’s tough being dead—until you get used to it—though it’s a damned sight better than what goes before with the mess and the blood and the battle for every breath. Not to mention my sobbing sisters, wailing away—at least Mary—she’s never been one to hide her feelings. Martha’s different—she knows the strength in sparing words …
Sunday Week 2 of Lent Year A
Lent is a time to be selfish. And the problem we have is that we don’t really know how to be selfish. Selfishness just doesn’t come all that easily to us. We are not good at it! In the spirit of election year I’d like to take a straw poll: Hands up those of you …
Ash Wednesday
The apocryphal story being told at breakfast this morning in my community is about Pat Buchanan. Apparently, so someone says, Bob Dole had been talking again about his humble origins in Kansas, how he started with nothing, and how he’s had to work hard for everything he has. On which Buchanan supposedly comments: “if he’s …