Homily for Holy Saturday

Mark 14:38, 46-47, 51-52: Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation . . . . Then they laid hands on Jesus and took Him. And one of those who stood by drew his sword and struck the servant of the high priest, and cut off his ear . . . . .Now a certain young man followed Him, having a linen . . . . Continue Reading »

This is My Son

Thoughts inspired by Hans Holbein’s “Body of the Dead Christ”: The Father sees His crucified Son, and says “This is my Beloved Son.” He regards the corpse of Jesus, blue, bruised, scarred, twisted, hands and feet blackened like claws, sightless eyes lolling upward, jaw . . . . Continue Reading »

40+ Reasons for Lent

An exaltation of tweets. To observe Lent rightly, we have to be persuaded that we already stand in God’s favor. Ash Wednesday reminds us to number our days. It helps us gain a heart of wisdom (Psalm 90:12). We keep Easter to manifest and deepen our prior share in resurrection. We observe Lent . . . . Continue Reading »

Generosity of God

Wells again, commenting on the wedding at Cana: “This is not a story of the transformation of poison into safe water. It is not a story of a world deformed by sin being converted into a clean and healthy community. It is not a story of the obliteration or extermination of evil by a divine . . . . Continue Reading »

God Gives Jesus

Another quotation from Wells, summing up the thesis of his book: “God has given his people everything they need to worship him, to be his friends, and to eat with him. He has done this by giving them the body of Christ. He gives his people the body of Christ in three forms – Jesus, the . . . . Continue Reading »

Sublimes

In his highly readable The Sublime (The New Critical Idiom) , Philip Shaw lucidly summarizes the standard distinction between the sublime and the beautiful: “The sublime is greater than the beautiful; the sublime is dark, profound, and overwhelming and implicitly masculine, whereas the . . . . Continue Reading »

Incarnation and Art

WH Auden argued in an essay on the fall of Rome that “One may like or dislike Christianity, but no one can deny that it was Christianity and the Bible which raised western literature from the dead.” Elaborating, “A faith which held that the Son of God was born in a manger, . . . . Continue Reading »

Exhortation

We honor Christian martyrs because they offer the supreme sacrifice for the sake of Jesus. But martyrdom is not for a heroic few. We are all called to be martyrs. The Greek word “martyr” means witness, and we should hear the full legal force of that word. History is a great trial in . . . . Continue Reading »