3 July 2026 - seven days later

Today's Readings
(Audio)

So the other disciples said to him, "We have seen the Lord."

But how could it be that they had seen him but Thomas had not? The most likely option from Thomas's point of view was that they hadn't really seen him. Their grief had caused them to believe they saw what they wanted to see. But if he accounted for the frustrating fact that they all appeared to be in the right minds, he might have had to conclude that they were speaking the truth. But that might even be worse. Because then, why had Jesus chosen them but neglected him? Did he care about them that much more than Thomas? No doubt modern skeptics look at believing Christians and also wonder. Are they deluded? Or is their gift of faith given to them simply because God loves them more than the rest, for whom it is impossible? And so, for sanity and self-protection, Thomas responded to the other disciples with words that sound very modern. 

"Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands
and put my finger into the nailmarks
and put my hand into his side, I will not believe."

Had he missed his first opportunity to see the risen Lord because he chose to be absent when he ought to have been together with the others? Even so, it seemed that one bad choice ought not disqualify anyone from receiving the gift of faith forever. And indeed, whatever the reason for his absence, it was not the end of the story. Even if it was strictly speaking the wrong choice Jesus still used it to bring about a greater good. The way the whole affair caused him to become deeply entrenched in his skepticism was actually part of Jesus's plan. 

Now a week later his disciples were again inside
and Thomas was with them.

Thomas must not have given up entirely, even with all of his deep doubts. After all, one who had done so would hardly have been willing to put up with the overwhelming exuberance of the others who claimed to have seen the risen Lord. His presence with the others the following week demonstrated both humility and docility, a willingness to remain in the place to which he had been called by Jesus even when it was uncomfortable and he didn't understand. One might even suggest that he at least wanted to believe the truth that now provided so much consolation for the other disciples. His barriers were still in place, however, and he wasn't going to budge on the basis of anything they could say to him. Woe to them if they thought they could talk him into it, if they thought they they were capable of changing the fundamental orientation of a human heart. But it was not left up to them.

Jesus came, although the doors were locked,
and stood in their midst and said, "Peace be with you."

The doors to the building were locked, but how much more were those to the heart of Thomas! And yet Jesus came through those doors as well and entered just as easily. For him apparently unbreachable barriers provided no obstacle. The walls raised by Thomas to protect himself from despair fell, but in the face, not of sadness, but of surpassing joy. Was it this vulnerability that made his subsequent expression of faith so profound? The others had come to know that Jesus was indeed risen from the dead. But Thomas confessed something more and greater in his presence.

Thomas answered and said to him, "My Lord and my God!"

God did not merely prevent Thomas from doubting, nor did he simply hold it against him until he repented, but rather he made it work for his good, not because of his merits, but in order to bestow them. Thomas saw the human body of Jesus, living when he ought to have been dead. But he believed through what he saw in the invisible divine presence which was united with his visible humanity.

"He saw and touched the man, and acknowledged the God whom he neither saw nor touched; but by the means of what he saw and touched, he now put far away from him every doubt, and believed the other."

- Saint Augustine

Thomas, who apparently had the most profound doubts of any of the disciples, became the one to most explicitly confess his divinity. It is precisely because of his confession and others like it that we who have not seen may also believe. Our belief is very much predicated on the fact that some did see and gave testimony to future generations about what they witnessed. 

Jesus said to him, "Have you come to believe because you have seen me?
Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed."

Jesus was not accusing Thomas of having some kind of second-class, needy, inferior faith. What he saw was something less than what he began to  believe and proclaim. Even after Thomas had received this empirical evidence there was still an act of faith necessary. Rather than critiquing the specific experience of Thomas, Jesus was setting the stage of how the specific gifts given to some would later bless many others. Even those of us who have seen miraculous evidence of the power of the risen Lord at work in our world still depend for our faith on the testimony of Thomas. Thank God for his doubts since now, because of them, we may proclaim together with him, "My Lord and my God!".

Matt Maher - Christ Is Risen

 

2 July 2026 - you won't carry that weight

Today's Readings
(Audio)

And there people brought to him a paralytic lying on a stretcher.
When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic,
"Courage, child, your sins are forgiven."

The friends of the paralytic spared no effort to bring him before the healing power of Jesus. Their friend had a real problem that severely impacted the quality of his life, that prevented him from thriving and him becoming all intended by God. Unless they were aware of the particular sins with which the man struggled they probably found the pronouncement of his forgiveness as anticlimactic. It would be like going to the ministry of some famous healer hoping for a cure to a longtime ailment but only being able to receive sacramental confession. This would probably feel like a let down, and yet to Jesus forgiveness is a greater and more important gift than merely physical healing. Healing of the soul, which lasts forever, takes primacy over healing of the body, which will again begin to decay the moment is temporarily restored. But this is not to say that Jesus does not care about the problems of the body such as sickness or disability.

But that you may know that the Son of Man
has authority on earth to forgive sins"–
he then said to the paralytic,
"Rise, pick up your stretcher, and go home."

What was the main purpose of the healing? Was it to merely restore the man to health so that he could live the normal life of which he had been until that moment deprived? No. It had that effect, but that wasn't the primary point. Rather it was to help people to experience a spiritual truth through a physical sign. It was meant to help the friends who brought the paralytic to Jesus to appreciate that their effort meant more than they knew. It was to help those skeptics in the crowd who heard his words understand that Jesus was able to do something merely by speaking that would otherwise require the whole sacrificial system of the temple. It revealed that he was in the unique position to offer forgiveness on behalf of God himself, and this, ultimately, because that was who he was. It was very much a revelation, a pulling back of the curtain on his deepest identity.

He rose and went home.
When the crowds saw this they were struck with awe
and glorified God who had given such authority to men.

It seemed that the forgiveness of the paralytic followed by his healing had every effect Jesus intended. It resulted in the man rising and going home to a new life. It resulted in the crowds coming to understand a little better who Jesus was. But no doubt, the most profound result was actually in the soul, not the body, of the former paralytic himself. This part we don't see described in the story. We know nothing of the way sin had distorted his very identity. But we are sure that it was a deeper paralysis than the merely physical. It probably seemed even more intractable, more rooted in his very identity, more inseparable from who he was as a person. And yet, he left without that weight. However light his body felt when he stood for the first time (perhaps ever), we believe that his spirit felt lighter still. 

Darrell Evans - Trading My Sorrows

 

1 July 2026 - a swine idea

 

Today's Readings
(Audio)

When Jesus came to the territory of the Gadarenes,
two demoniacs who were coming from the tombs met him.
They were so savage that no one could travel by that road.

When the powers of darkness hold sway, when demons hold human souls under their power, there are possibilities that are inaccessible and roads that cannot be traveled. These two individuals were not able to play their intended role in the life of the larger world. On top of that, they made life more difficult for those who would have preferred to use the roads they occupied. People had to choose other routes while the possessed individuals themselves were increasingly alienated. In our own time, even without full scale possession, we may wonder what roads and possibilities would open in our world if only Jesus reigned in the hearts of more of his creatures. 

The demons pleaded with him,
“If you drive us out, send us into the herd of swine.”

Jesus is unwilling to see the potential of his creatures squandered. He is willing to take extreme measures to set them free, even if there is some initial collateral damage. In modern times we would be eager to cast out the powers of darkness, but perhaps only after we found a way to soften the blow to the economy. Jesus instead acted for the sake of individual human souls and left the economy to adapt to the consequences. This did not make him popular, at least not at first, while people struggled to find new and less compromised ways to make a living. We can see for their response to the actions of Jesus that they cared more about their income and less about the two individual who were now set free. 

Thereupon the whole town came out to meet Jesus,
and when they saw him they begged him to leave their district.

These two individuals, who were in their right minds for the first time in a long time, actually had more to offer to the life of the community than a herd of swine. No amount of bacon, however thick or nitrate-free, can add up to the value of a single soul. And that is no mere abstraction. When everyone in a community is living up to their God given potential that community can thrive in ways that remain impossible if it manages to shield itself from the healing disruption Jesus seeks to bring. But rigid order resists disruption in ways that are sometimes helpful, but often serve only to preserve the status quo. We are heartened to see that Jesus did not ask permission, did not wait to get enough votes in a committee formed to study the issue, before unleashing his power.

In what ways are we still clinging to the status quo merely because it is convenient rather than cooperating with the creative disruption Jesus would unleash in our world? The power of darkness will not be allowed to last forever. There is an appointed time after which they will be cast into the abyss. And so we should untether our destiny from theirs sooner rather than later. We should hitch our wagons to a power leading us down a path that has a future. This we should do both as individuals and as a larger society. No more can we neglect the disenfranchised few for the happiness of the many. We must be a society that seeks to recover every lost sheep, to welcome and care for everyone.

Newsboys - Thrive

 

30 June 2026 - and there was great calm

Today's Readings
(Audio)

As Jesus got into a boat, his disciples followed him.
Suddenly a violent storm came up on the sea,
so that the boat was being swamped by waves;

Storms are bad enough on their own, but are even worse when they seem to be the result of our decision to follow Jesus. In normal life storms are a regular occurrence. But when we follow Jesus we tend to expect smooth sailing. We think he could at least probably see storms coming and keep us on the shore, with a spiritual small craft advisory in effect. When storms do occur while we are together with Jesus it seems to imply a lack of power on his part, as though if he had power he would always use it to spare us any struggle. Or perhaps we see his lack of immediate response as indifferent, as though he is asleep in our boat precisely because he doesn't care that we are perishing and can't be bothered to help us. 

They came and woke him, saying,
“Lord, save us!  We are perishing!”

At least, for all their fear, the disciples still believed that Jesus might be able to save them. And yet, if they really understood who he was they need not have been terrified. If they had greater faith they could have seen the storm without fearing for their lives. They could have trusted that if Jesus led them into a storm, he had a reason for doing so, and could also lead them through it.

He said to them, “Why are you terrified, O you of little faith?”
Then he got up, rebuked the winds and the sea,
and there was great calm.

Jesus wanted to give his disciples a theophany, a revelation of the fact that he was God incarnate, based on a demonstration of his power to do what only God could do. But this necessitated more than a highly accurate weather report around which they could plan their lives. It required that they actually be present with forces that would typically be beyond human control. Thus he did not defer to the weather as a force with which even he could not reckon. He sailed into the heart of a storm and from there rebuked it. He demonstrated that the power of his word was greater than even the most impressive demonstration of nature itself. This clearly identified him with the Lord himself, of whom the psalmist wrote:

Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble,
and he delivered them from their distress.
He made the storm be still,
and the waves of the sea were hushed.
Then they were glad that the waters were quiet,
and he brought them to their desired haven (see Psalm 107:28-30).

Only because of the storm were the disciples able to grow in their faith, which growth was a far greater good than merely avoiding the storm in the first place. Yet it remains hard for us to recognize any value in the storms of our lives. The initial experience always feels more unplanned and accidental. But if we remember that Jesus is with us we need not fear. If he seems asleep we can remember that it is not because of indifference. There may well be times when we are called to awaken him and ask for help. But we need not do so with desperation as if the world is ending. He has overcome storms before. Indeed, he has already "overcome the world" (see John 16:33). This is why trust in him really does yield peace beyond understanding (see Philippians 4:7). He doesn't lead us into storms to take our peace away, but rather to set it on more solid foundations. That which is shakable is shaken so that which cannot be shaken remains (see Hebrews 12:27).

Hillsong UNITED - Oceans (Where Feet May Fail)

 

29 June 2026 - exult his name together

Today's Readings
(Audio)

And so I say to you, you are Peter,
and upon this rock I will build my Church,
and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.

Jesus did not promise a Church that would always look good or be held in honor from an earthly perspective. He did not suggest that it would not contain the bad along with the good. In fact, in the parable of the wheat and the tares he promised precisely the opposite. He didn't promise a Church with a perfect defense, that would always be insulated and safe from the contagion of the world. But he did promise a Church that would always be capable of its divine mission, that being laying siege to hell and setting free people held captive by the powers of darkness. But this promise implied real guarantees of things that were necessary to ensure it. For instance, it was by knowing the truth that people could be set free (see John 8:32). Thus there was the implicit promise that the Church would always have sufficient access to those truths necessary for our salvation. She wasn't guaranteed all knowledge or that she would always act in accord with the truth she did possess. But the essential truth would always be present and, to one degree or another, mobilized for the sake of the Kingdom. There may have been periods with more or less confusion about practical matters. But the core sacramental realities of the Church and the fundamental matters of the creed and of the Gospel could never be lost. They were the basis by which the world could by which the gates of the netherworld could be broken wide open and humanity could be saved.

I will give you the keys to the Kingdom of heaven.
Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven;
and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

In order to meaningfully possess the truth it was necessary that it be identified and distinguished from falsehoods, many of which often sounded intuitive enough to be true and similar enough to be plausible. Although Jesus gave the Spirit as teacher and guide to every Christian he did not insist that each of us by our own final arbiter of truth. It is not the job of most sheep to be experts, but rather, to be docile to the voice of the shepherd. But in order to exercise proper docility we must know where to listen. Thus Jesus singled out Peter as the source and focal point of unity in the Church. He and those in union with him could and did proclaim the Gospel faithfully and without error. His successor, the bishop of Rome, and those bishops in union with him do the same in our own day. They continue to make the voice of the shepherd clear and distinct through the power of the keys to bind and loose. Sheep that try to reconstruct theology solely by their own resources and abilities do stay in agreement with other sheep for very long. The statements of faith are constantly being modified and branching off into various distinct paths, all often emphasizing some important truth. But that emphasis always come at a cost. It may have been said that each man has a pope in his belly. But this is not a productive impulse to let govern our life as followers of Jesus. We should prefer to be one flock under the voice of the one shepherd, Jesus, made know through his appointed steward.

He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”
Simon Peter said in reply,
“You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Jesus said to him in reply, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah.

The Church may possess the truth and provide the invitation. But she cannot have the encounter with Jesus that we are called to have for us without our involvement. And the main point of the Church is not just that people can know the truth abstractly and academically. It is rather so that people can encounter the Truth who is a Person and be transformed by him. The whole Church is shaped to make the revelation experienced by Simon Peter available to the entire world. When it seems that the forces of the netherworld are ascendant and the Church herself seems to be struggling it is often because we forget that which matters most, that which is most distinctive: the centrality of the person of Christ that should be her deepest priority and identity.

When we encounter Jesus in the way that both Peter and Paul encountered him we become capable of living, and even, if necessary, dying for him. Then we will truly believe that there is nothing more important for us to be able to say at the end of our days than, "I have kept the faith", nothing better to look forward to than the "crown of righteousness". It is not primarily our own righteousness that is crowned. It is rather that we become the righteousness of Christ (see Second Corinthians 5:21) and he crowns his own merits in us. At the end we hope to see that we didn't resist him too much, choke off the grace he offered, or stubbornly prevent him from having his way in us. And this will be true of us as well as Paul, provided that we come to know Jesus and to rely on him throughout the challenges that are part and parcel of life in a fallen world.

The Lord stood by me and gave me strength,
so that through me the proclamation might be completed
and all the Gentiles might hear it.

When we know Jesus, we know it is all about him. That means that even more than our weaknesses and failures we can trust in him for strength until we can say with Paul:

And I was rescued from the lion’s mouth.
The Lord will rescue me from every evil threat
and will bring me safe to his heavenly Kingdom.
To him be glory forever and ever.  Amen.

Shane And Shane - Psalm 34 (Taste And See)

 

 

28 June 2026 - lost and found

 

Today's Readings
(Audio)

Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me,
and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me;

No one loved his mother more than did Jesus himself. Jesus was not suggesting that family was unimportant. After all, he invented the idea of human family. He himself decided to be born into a human family, under the authority of his parents, honoring them according to the very commandment that he himself first gave to Moses on Mount Sinai. Indeed well functioning families seemed so fundamental to the very fabric of society that one would seem to neglect the institution at his own peril. Nevertheless even family, when not ordered to God, can become an obstacle. It can actually become antagonistic to the good plans God had for the world. Mary and Jesus both easily could have preferred their life together to his sorrowful and difficult mission. They could have chosen to place this family bond of theirs at the center of their lives rather than placing God first. But Mary chose to love her son more than herself, to the degree that she desired for him what he desired for himself, even though it proved to be the cross. And Jesus chose faithfulness to his own divine identity, obedience to his heavenly Father, even over his most beloved bond with his earthly mother.

and whoever does not take up his cross
and follow after me is not worthy of me.

We too must choose to place Jesus first in all things. Good things in our lives will remain good to the degree that they are open and ordered to Jesus and his mission. They will become idols to the degree that we refuse to allow God to be involved and insist on being the ultimate arbiters of our own decisions about them. It doesn't matter how good and incorruptible anything seems to be. It only has its goodness from God and is eventually revealed to be empty when we refuse to surrender it to him. All the more, then, must we reject things which are not in any sense good, and this for the sake of Jesus. It is not enough to merely reject bad things because they are bad. We will wind up like an empty house that is now swept, clean, and inviting for the return of "seven other spirits more evil than itself" (see Matthew 12:45). But when we reject vice and sin for the sake of Jesus he himself fills the emptiness left by their absence. 

Whoever finds his life will lose it,
and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

Life is obviously a good thing, a prerequisite for pretty much anything else. But if we prefer even our very lives to God they quickly go off the rails. We lose our freedom to follow him, not only when our lives are on the line, but even when they are threatened in lesser ways that still evoke the fear, rooted in death, that we all have as mortal beings. When we seek life in a limited and relative way there is a degree to which we may hope to seek and actually find it. But if we insist too strongly on seeking life at any cost we will quickly discover diminishing returns. We will never achieve such a perfect guarantee of life independent of God as to be satisfactory to our fear stricken egos. But that does not mean that we are called to take a hostile attitude toward ourselves. The idea is more that we not focus excessively on ourselves, to the degree that we could even lose ourselves without noticing, because we are too caught up in the larger story God is telling. We could lose our lives for his sake. If we finally achieve that level of detachment, it will be then that we truly find ourselves and possess ourselves without danger.

Whoever receives you receives me,
and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.

When we stop seeking ourselves first we become free to receive others. We are not so closed and self-directed as to reject them outright, not so preoccupied with our own stuff that we can't really listen sympathetic to their stories. We've probably all had the experience of talking with someone who could only listen impatiently waiting for his next turn to speak. But when we seek Jesus first, we can actually find his presence in all of those whom we are called to receive. Any hospitality we show or charity we offer can be done as for Jesus himself. By contrast, when we still choose to put ourselves first we don't really have the freedom to open ourselves to others. There is always a element of selfishness, however hidden, even in those acts of our that appear to be the most altruistic.

And whoever gives only a cup of cold water
to one of these little ones to drink
because the little one is a disciple—
amen, I say to you, he will surely not lose his reward.

At first, when we hear the Gospel summons to take up our cross we think it may be an impossibly high bar. Perhaps we remember the quote of Bonhoeffer, who wrote, "When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die". And yet today's Gospel passage goes on to show us that the bar is not in fact so very high. We worry that if we don't get everything exactly right as disciples, if there is any residual selfishness in us, that we risk losing our lives entirely. But the call is not about immediate perfection. It is more about our fundamental orientation. Jesus makes it clear that the one who commits himself to him, even through acts that are almost embarrassingly insignificant, "will surely not lose his reward". He is able to work through every small act of surrender we make, drawing us ever deeper into his own heart.

Newsboys - Lead Me To The Cross

 

27 June 2026 - belief > barriers

Today's Readings
(Audio)

He said to him, “I will come and cure him.”

The Catholic Commentary of Sacred Scripture suggests that "Jesus acknowledges the boldness of the centurion's request in his response, which is better translated as an exclamatory question: "Shall I come and cure him?" With the emphatic "I," it is as if Jesus is saying, "Shall I, a Jew, come to your home?"" ¹. This provides context for the response of the centurion, who said "Lord, I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof; only say the word and my servant will be healed". It wasn't just polite humility being displayed by the centurion, nor a mere formality. Jesus suggested a real potential barrier that perhaps ought to have prevented him from granting the centurion's request. In a way not entirely dissimilar to how leprosy should have kept him separated from lepers, that fact of this person being a Gentile seemed to suggest an insurmountable obstacle to the healing power of Jesus.

For I too am a man subject to authority,
with soldiers subject to me.
And I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes;
and to another, ‘Come here,’ and he comes;
and to my slave, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”

The centurion's faith invited Jesus to surmount a barrier which was in fact only apparent and not absolute. If he had a limited belief about Jesus, that he needed to be physically present in order to perform the healing, that belief might have limited what Jesus was able to do in his case. Further, he might well have believed such a thing about Jesus if he had simply thought he was one more in the mold of human healers. Even when such people had real gifts those gifts had limits. It was not something one could take for granted that the power of a healer could transcend time and space. But the centurion recognized some kind of analogy between his own authority as a military leader, which was, in a weaker way, able to bridge the barrier of distance, with that of the words of Jesus. It was just that while the centurion commanded soldiers, Jesus commanded nature, and reality itself. And this was something he could have known in no other way than through faith.

Amen, I say to you, in no one in Israel have I found such faith.
I say to you, many will come from the east and the west,
and will recline with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob
at the banquet in the Kingdom of heaven

Just as the barrier of leprosy was not able to stand against the power of Jesus released through faith neither was the division between Gentile and Jew. His healing power would be available, not to those born of a specific lineage, but to all who believed. Jesus had the power to transcend such barriers because he had the power to heal the problems that were at the root which made them necessary in the first place. But in general, it did not happen automatically. Nor was it possible on the basis of presumption. It took humility to even recognize the need for the faith necessary to let Jesus work.

And at that very hour his servant was healed. Jesus entered the house of Peter,
and saw his mother-in-law lying in bed with a fever.
He touched her hand, the fever left her,
and she rose and waited on him.

The inclusion of the story about the healing of Peter's mother-in-law in today's Gospel reading is informative in that it seemed that this time Jesus took the initiative. It was not always necessary for a dramatic request and display of faith on the part of those in need. Once they had put their faith in Jesus and became his followers he would take care of those who were his own, and even surprise them with the blessings he unleashed in their lives. We should of course continue to bring our needs to Jesus as his disciples, just as did the crowds. But it is reassuring to know that we don't have to iterate an exhaustive list. It doesn't ultimately come down to us, or even to our ability to know what to want or ask. After all, that is exactly the promise we have, more than all we can ask or imagine (see Ephesians 3:20).

— 1) The Gospel of Matthew (Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture): (A Catholic Bible Commentary on the New Testament by Trusted Catholic Biblical Scholars - CCSS) by Curtis Mitch, Edward Sri

Graham Kendrick - We Believe

 

26 June 2026 - reintegration

Today's Readings
(Audio)

Moses, who came down from Mount Sinai, gave a law that was rigorous in its demands that insisted on the separation of those with leprosy from the people, and for obvious reasons. It wasn't a failure of compassion on his part. All that the law could do to stem corruption was to isolate it and push it away from public life. It mitigated the risk of contagion but could not offer a cure. 

When Jesus came down from the mountain, great crowds followed him.
And then a leper approached, did him homage, and said,
“Lord, if you wish, you can make me clean.”

Jesus was like a new Moses, but one who could actually treat the root causes of things for which Moses could only address the symptoms. His words had power, not just in a legal sense, but even over the workings of nature. But it was clear that no one had authority over him. His power was untamed and unpredictable. He was Lord, in the same sense as the Lord God himself, and therefore worthy of homage. One could not automatically assume he would do something miraculous in any given case. But his compassion for those who were like sheep without a shepherd was obvious. There was good reason for the leper to hope that he would want to heal him. After all, the Lord God would desire to see creation functioning according to his original intention, not marred by sin, sickness, and death. Whether he dealt with it immediately or eventually he certainly found it intolerable to let a disease like leprosy have the last word.

He stretched out his hand, touched him, and said,
“I will do it.  Be made clean.”

Jesus by no means needed to touch the leper to heal him. In other instances he healed from a distance at the power of his word. But in order for the leper to truly be healed of everything entailed by his disease this touch of Jesus was necessary. Otherwise, his body might have regained integrity but his heart would still have been wounded, not fully able to be reintegrated into the life of the community. The touch of Jesus healed his sense of himself as one defined by his illness. It had previously seemed to be an insurmountable barrier between himself and others. But Jesus overcame it and set him on a path to return to the worshiping community

Then Jesus said to him, “See that you tell no one,
but go show yourself to the priest,
and offer the gift that Moses prescribed;
that will be proof for them.”

In addition to this historical healing of a leper we can also learn from the event as a metaphor for sin and forgiveness. What Moses could not do because of the hardness of the people's hearts Jesus would accomplish by giving us new hearts, renewed by the Holy Spirit. He would not just address the external manifestations of sin with rules but would actually heal the problem from its root in the center of our beings. More and more we would cease to choose or even desire sinful things. But perhaps greater still, we can come to learn by his healing touch that we are lovable, something that our sinfulness causes us to doubt and disbelieve. Who would love one so twisted and fallen as we? Jesus proves that he does by his willingness to touch us. It is on this basis that we have the emotional and spiritual resources to participate in the life of the community. It isn't about us, so much as what he has done within us.

May my tongue cleave to my palate
if I remember you not,
If I place not Jerusalem
ahead of my joy.

Matisyahu - Jerusalem

 

25 June 2026 - firm foundations?

 

Today's Readings
(Audio)

Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’
will enter the Kingdom of heaven,
but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.

It is not enough to claim to be Christians, we must live as Christians. We can't plead our case to the judge on the last day merely in virtue of our knowledge of the name of Jesus. It is disingenuous to plead his name after a life lived in opposition to his teachings.

Many will say to me on that day,
‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name?
Did we not drive out demons in your name?
Did we not do mighty deeds in your name?’

Jesus can do mighty deeds through anyone, but it does not necessarily mean his heart has been converted. We can't assume that the miraculous things we witness are happening because of us, since they may sometimes also happen through us in spite of us. In fact, it is fortunate that Jesus can use us to reach out to others despite our weaknesses and failings, since we continue to deal with such things throughout every stage of spiritual growth. So neither the presence nor absence of miracles are indicative of our progress. It is also the case that although we may be beset by weakness until our last breath this is not the basis on which we be disqualified. It is rather about how we respond. Do we engage with Jesus through a sincere personal relationship in which we allow him to transform us and our lives? And do we continue to return to that relationship as the fundamental center of our lives even when we do stumble and fall?

Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them
will be like a wise man who built his house on rock.
The rain fell, the floods came,
and the winds blew and buffeted the house.

The contrast Jesus makes is between listening and acting and listening without a response. When we hear this parable it might at first seem that it would all come down to the type of house that we build. But in fact the foundation is far more important. Thus, even if there are architectural issues, problems with the materials, or failures along the way in the build process, we can still survive the challenges we face if we remain truly rooted in Jesus himself. On the other hand, it doesn't much matter how sturdy a house one builds upon the sand. It does not have the foundations necessary to survive real world weather conditions. 

We might be worried that Jesus implies that surviving storms depends on our success as disciples, that our acting on his words implies we do so perfectly and consistently. But much more important is the foundations on which we fall back. When we build well on a sturdy foundation that which is well built will endure. The weather of life will strip away that which is too weak or distorted. The edifice will continue to rise as long as we continue to return to Jesus as the basis on which we build. Acting on his words is thus more about our priorities and our faithfulness than any specific success or failure. 

The rain fell, the floods came,
and the winds blew and buffeted the house.
And it collapsed and was completely ruined.

One consequence of this parable of the wise and foolish builders is we can look at our lives and see the degree to which negative circumstances unsettle us as a kind of litmus test. We can notice ourselves becoming disturbed and ask if there is a way we could be more surrendered to him, some way we could have been more rooted in his words. But the structure that is rising on the foundation of his word is never complete while this life lasts. And yet, we should see progress, progress toward becoming the living stones we are meant to be.

you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ (see First Peter 2:5).

Phil Wickham - What An Awesome God

 

24 June 2026 - his name

Today's Readings
(Audio)

When they came on the eighth day to circumcise the child,
they were going to call him Zechariah after his father,
but his mother said in reply,
“No. He will be called John.”

At first, Zechariah had been unable to trust the revelation of the angel and speak in agreement with the revealed plan of God for him, resulting in him losing his ability to speak until the episode in today's Gospel. Somehow it was this very imposition of silence that created the conditions in a faithful response could take shape. In a way, he represented the whole human race, reiterating our doubts over and against God's desire to set us free. But in silence we can no longer fill the noise with the repetition of our own ideas and what we believe we know. We are open to the voice of God speaking something new into our lives and the world. And hopefully we can eventually express our own assent to that new thing, just as did Zechariah. No longer tied to the curse of past infidelity, he wrote in agreement with the new thing God was doing "John is his name". From there blessings were immediately unleashed, and with them his tongue was loosed. It was now safe for him to speak, since he was so overwhelmed with the goodness of God that he was too preoccupied to with it to even remember his former doubts.

Immediately his mouth was opened, his tongue freed,
and he spoke blessing God.

The clarity with which John's name pointed to the revelation of Gabriel, and therefore to the new thing God was doing in the world, was a clarity that defined the whole life and mission of the Baptist. He was utterly unambiguous about what he came to do, about the lamb of God to whom he pointed, the one's whose way he prepared. The typical human pattern would have been to take some of the credit oneself for one's greatness and popularity. But John insisted on decreasing that Jesus could increase. Like his father Zechariah's words, he would subside so that the true Word could be heard and recognized. He possessed a supernatural fixation and focus on the core of his mission that must have been highly compelling to those who encountered him. 

We know that outside of the Kingdom there were none born of woman who are greater than John the Baptist. But this was not in virtue of any great miracles or other mighty deeds that he accomplished. It was all based on his faithfulness to the mission entrusted to him by God, his willingness to become less rather than more. He was willing to set the stage for the one whose coming mattered most and then step aside when he arrived. We who are within the Kingdom of Jesus are called to a similar kind of greatness. It might not be fantastical or flashy. But it must be faithful and focused on the person of Jesus himself. We still live in a world that insists on repeating its own doubts and despair as though they were a prophecy or an incantation. But we have something new to say, and genuine hope to offer. May we, like Zechariah, learn to agree with the word of God. And then may we, like John, live it to the fullest.

CeCe Winans - Goodness Of God

 

23 June 2026 - sharing the treasure?

Today's Readings
(Audio)

Do not give what is holy to dogs, or throw your pearls before swine,
lest they trample them underfoot, and turn and tear you to pieces.

We should not give that which is most precious to those unwilling or unable to appreciate it. Neither we nor they will benefit from such a transaction. These moments will be clear to us because our audience, while hungry, will not be specifically interested in the holiness or value of what we want to offer. In order for us to even communicate our message in these cases will feel like a disservice to the truth of the Gospel. It is not just that our audience won't receive it a spirit of genuine openness and interest. Our presentation of it will reveal how we ourselves relate to it. If we are willing to throw it forth into a context where it is more likely to be misunderstood, criticized, and devoured, than appreciated it will imply that even we don't really care about it that much. We wouldn't treat something we found to be truly holy or beautiful in that way. Yet we know that those who at one moment come across as dogs or swine may in the future be able to receive like children from the family table. Obviously, perfection is never required. But it is the very desire for spiritual pearl of the Gospel itself that transforms us and gradually makes us capable of receiving it. And so, perhaps, we shouldn't be too quick to write people off as dogs or swine. Without throwing our pearls in their path recklessly we can still let them see the way they catch the light of the sun and see how they respond. Are they humanized by what they see and hear? Do they seem capable of a genuine response? In this case we should not hold back or hesitate to share our treasure.

Do to others whatever you would have them do to you.
This is the Law and the Prophets.

We want others to want the pearl of great price. But we don't want to put them in a situation where they further alienate themselves from its promise. And so we share what we have, not as a weapon with which to bludgeon them, but as a genuine treasure, insofar as they can receive it. If we were without the pearl ourselves we would want others to help us understand and appreciate its beauty so that we could receive it properly. Thus this is what we are called to do for others.

for the gate is wide and the road broad that leads to destruction,
and those who enter through it are many.
How narrow the gate and constricted the road that leads to life.
And those who find it are few.

There are almost infinite numbers of wrong answers to the question of how we ought to live. And although there are many ways of expressing it, there is ultimately only one right answer. Jesus himself is the only way to salvation. And so to find the narrow road we must respond to his invitation to follow him to the degree that we become aware of it. He himself is the way, the gate, the only name given under heaven by which we may be saved. It is by availing ourselves of the grace of his gift of the Holy Spirit we become the right shape to pass along the road and through the gate to life. The gate is Jesus-sized and the Spirit make us so much like him that we too can pass through it. We cannot follow the masses, for they may well be heading in the wrong directions. This story is not a Choose You Own Adventure. But the conclusion of such stories usually fails to satisfy. We are merely secondary coauthors of a story that God is writing. And his stories are always more beautiful than anything we could come up with ourselves.

Dan Schutte - I Found The Treasure

22 June 2026 - lest ye be judged

Today's Readings
(Audio)

Why do you notice the splinter in your brother’s eye,
but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own eye?

It would seem that we often indulge in judging others in order to divert attention from ourselves, both our own attention and that of others. We point out others' faults both to make them look bad our ourselves morally superior. Look at us, we seem to say, here on the moral high ground. We often pretend that our criticism is practical, as though it could somehow actually move the needle to address those things with which we find fault. But the fact of the matter is that we don't often have the clarity to provide meaningful assistance. Our eye is still too occluded with our own distorted sinful tendencies. 

How can you say to your brother,
‘Let me remove that splinter from your eye,’
while the wooden beam is in your eye?

We are meant to want to remove the splinter from the eye of our brother, but on the basis of a more selfless and enlightened motivation. This is possible if self-reflection and repentence are consistent practices in our own lives. When we do notice issues in the lives of others we ought to ask ourselves the reason we are concerned. Are they triggering something, threatening us somehow, or causing us to feel annoyed? Or is it rather that in the context or our relationship with them we feel that fraternal correction is necessary? Without such a relationship, either that of a fellow disciple, or with someone in one's charge, what is the point of expressing our judgment? Sometimes we may need to help clarify both our own thinking about public figures and that of those with whom we share life. But this doesn't extend very far. It probably never extends to the latest celebrity gossip.

The idea is that we will eventually see clearly enough to remove the splinter from our brother's eye. But this is only possible when we judge others in the way we want to be judged, and measure out only what we would want measured out to us. This is similar to the parable of the unforgiving servant. We can't expect to receive the leniency that we desperately need unless we are willing to offer it to others generously. We need to become like Jesus himself, who loved us too much to leave the boards in our eyes, but to remove them took the whole burden on himself first before offering to share his yoke and help transform us.

Vineyard Worship Featuring Kate Cooke - Refiner's Fire

 

21 June 2026 - whom to fear

Today's Readings
(Audio)

Fear no one.
Nothing is concealed that will not be revealed,
nor secret that will not be known.

We need a functional fearlessness, with which we can avoid the temptation to conformity. With it we can be and say all which we ought for the sake of Jesus and his mission. This first point is not so much about our feelings as it is about not letting our feelings get in the way of living as faithful disciples. There will always be the temptation to hide our Christianity in the darkness, in the safe spaces where we know it is tolerated. But we are meant rather to proclaim it on the housetops, sometimes in words, but always through the way we live. More to it, our secret will get out eventually. It is better to reveal it ourselves than to have it revealed on the day of judgment. Do we affirm Jesus through the way we live? If so, there is nothing to fear. But if we deny him by refusing to be seen as his disciples we are implicitly asking him to deny us. If our lives indicate we don't want to be associated with Jesus and his message our eternity may tragically reflect that choice.

rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy
both soul and body in Gehenna.

We need not be afraid of those who can hurt our feelings, take our possessions, or even kill us. We may be intimidated by them but we can't allow that fear to determine our choices. Rather, the fear that can be a healthy motivating force is that which pertains to our eternal destiny. We know that we are altogether too likely to betray Jesus at times, even as Peter did during his arrest and trial. We are rightly afraid of our own weakness and propensity to failure. We are right to fear the pains of hell and the loss of heaven, and even more right to fear offending our God who is good and deserving of all of our love. But even such healthy fear as this can lead to paralysis or even despair if it is not offset by our confidence in the love God has for us.

Are not two sparrows sold for a small coin?
Yet not one of them falls to the ground without your Father's knowledge.
Even all the hairs of your head are counted.
So do not be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.

Fear of God must be tempered by constant remembrance of the great lengths to which he went for our salvation. We may sometimes have the mistaken impression that God is looking for an excuse to punish or condemn us. But it is precisely the opposite. He is always looking for even the slightest opening to unleash his salvation in our lives. If we have doubts about God's motivation we need only gaze upon the crucifix and things will quickly become crystal clear. Yes, it is possible to mess things up to the extent that we forfeit our salvation. But that is not what God wants, and he is thus constantly at work to ensure doesn't happen. He never ceases to supply his Spirit, helping us to be courageous and bold in choosing him as he first chose us. Even when we do stumble along the way it is he himself who invites us to stand up again, he himself who gives us the grace to do so. This life is not a battle we fight alone, any more than it was for Jeremiah, though for all of us it may seem that way at times. Life may well seem to be "Terror on every side!", but the words of Jesus in the Gospel today help us to learn to say, together with Jeremiah, "the LORD is with me, like a mighty champion: my persecutors will stumble, they will not triumph". And we come at last to believe the words of the psalmist:

See, you lowly ones, and be glad;
you who seek God, may your hearts revive!
For the LORD hears the poor,
and his own who are in bonds he spurns not.

dc Talk - Fearless

 

20 June 2026 - flowers' power?

 

Today's Readings
(Audio)

No one can serve two masters.
He will either hate one and love the other,
or be devoted to one and despise the other.
You cannot serve God and mammon.

Excessive concern for money is a subset of a larger problem, indicative of the fact that we are trying to be the gods of our own lives. It demonstrates that we wish to insulate ourselves against all of the many things that could go wrong in the world. We become so afraid of the fact that our basic needs of our lives, including food, drink, and clothing, might not be met, that even remote possibilities of problems become intolerable. Or we turn to money because we don't find the world to be sufficient good on its own. Instead we decide that we must be the ones to ensure we have sufficient access to beauty and pleasure. Or we turn to money because we don't feel sufficiently confident that we are lovable in ourselves and use our wealth to give others reasons to want to be in our company. But when money is what we are chasing above all it quickly becomes evident to others. And it isn't a good look. When we care about money more than God and neighbor we become its servant instead of servants of the Lord. Rather than elevating ourselves by the power it promises we become something less than human, pursuing inanimate material resources as though they were our superiors.

Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life,
what you will eat or drink,
or about your body, what you will wear.

Jesus didn't say that we are not to provide for ourselves. He only said that worry doesn't actually add to our ability to do so. Worry is a lot of emotional movement that is nevertheless entirely unproductive, since worry cannot "add a single moment to your life-span". And yet we are reluctant to relinquish our right to worry. We have this semiconscious suspicion that if we don't subject ourselves to worry we won't expend enough effort to make it through life. But is it ever actually worry that helps? To be sure, preparedness often makes a difference. But preparation and worry are not the same or even similar. Preparation is best accomplished with a mind that is sound and sober. But when we worry we are by definition unsettled and in no position to make well thought out plans. Much less ought we worry after the fact, or about things over which we have no influence. In such matters it is best to let God be God and trust him. At a glance the state of the world might make us think that God's protection isn't enough and that there is after all a lot about which we should worry. But faith assures us that he is at work, and making all things work for together for the good of those who love him. This doesn't assure us that nothing bad will ever happen. Rather, it is a promise that even when bad things do happen they can never separate us from his love.

Learn from the way the wild flowers grow.
They do not work or spin.
But I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor
was clothed like one of them.

Jesus didn't say that we are to stop working and expecting God to magically provide everything we need. What he meant to address was our doubts about his ability to provide for us. The laws that he made to govern the universe allow birds to consistently find the food they need and let the flowers of the field become beautiful without striving for beauty. We too have been intentionally willed and created by him. But unlike the flowers or the birds we are made with immortal souls, meant to spend eternity with him. The regularity with which birds find food and flowers become beautiful are meant to be reminders of the steadfast love that was the motivation of the creation of the universe. Birds are sometimes caught by hunters or predators. The flowers of the field are sometimes trampled underfoot or burned. But "whoever does the will of God abides forever" (see First John 2:17).

We can learn to stop worrying by not investing in the things, like mammon, that make us worry, and instead investing in the one sure thing: the Kingdom. The servitude we impose on ourselves by pursuing our own projects at any cost makes us old ahead of our time. But "they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength" (see Isaiah 40:31).

When we take Jesus at his word we gradually come to believe the words of the psalmist: "For ever I will maintain my love for my servant". We say with John, "we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us" (see First John 4:16).

Newsboys - Million Pieces (Kissin' Your Cares Goodbye)

 

19 June 2026 - where our treasure is

Today's Readings
(Audio)

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth,
where moth and decay destroy, and thieves break in and steal.

Do the things we are seeking, those for which we invest energy and exert effort, have expiration dates? The more vicious of earthly pleasures tend to be the most short lived, requiring ever greater stimulation to in order to approach the highs they provided at first. But even the more virtuous forms of pleasure, such as are common in admirable friendships and families, can't last forever. We may delight in a game or a good conversation but we know that such things cannot last, that trying to draw them out too long in fact often ruins them. We may appreciate the beauty of a sunset, a painting, or a musical composition, but this too is transient. We may feel as though we are touching something central to reality when we attain to scientific knowledge or especially to wisdom. But even in these cases we are still typically focused on the sphere of temporal reality, on changing things, doomed to pass away. 

We tend to horde earthly treasure as though it can provide a bulwark against future trouble. We don't use the things of earth as if they are passing away but rather cling to them as though they can protect us forever. This leads us to a constant seeking of more, a constant dissatisfaction with what we have, as though if we just somehow get and keep enough we will finally be happy. We become like the man who built ever larger silos to store his surplus gain only. It no longer provides a utilitarian value we can put toward more important things. Rather, the mental and physical cost of maintaining it becomes a problem in its own right. 

But store up treasures in heaven,
where neither moth nor decay destroys, nor thieves break in and steal.

It is a blessing to store our treasure in heaven not only because in our future life it will be so unimaginably good to possess it, to possess God himself, but also because it is such a blessing to here and now let go of the white-knuckled grasp with which we hold things destined to pass away. When we use and hold temporary things knowing they are temporary in order to pursue things that are eternal we not only pursue the right path, but we also avoid much needless hardship and disappointment along the way.

For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be.

There is a real way that seeking heaven as our treasure makes the our earthly pilgrimage more heavenly. The more our hearts are set on God the more he will even now fill them with himself. By contrast, when we try to fill them with anything other than God we will always experience emptiness and gnawing hunger for more. God alone offers the bread that truly satisfies our hunger, the living water that alone can quench our thirst. Haven't we put up with the false promises of substitutes for long enough? Maybe we would think to answer that we have tried to seek treasure in heaven without finding it very satisfying, and we are simply making due with what we can in this mortal life of ours. But have we really? Or was that just a story we told ourselves? 

You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart (see Jeremiah 29:13).

Damascus Worship Featuring Olivia Parker - You're The Well

 

18 June 2026 - how to pray

Today's Readings
(Audio)

In praying, do not babble like the pagans,
who think that they will be heard because of their many words.

It is sometimes tempting to imagine that our prayers ought to work like cause and effect, and that they should function like clockwork. Thus, if we don't receive what we ask immediately it might seem to us that we did something wrongly, either by using the wrong formula, or else by lack of sufficient quantity of words. In such ways we sometimes imagine prayer to as strategy for manipulating the deity to get what we want. But in fact it is more a strategy for aligning our hearts with the will of God so that we learn to want what he wants to give us. We may assume that once we sufficiently communicate our need or make our case God will eventually be convinced and acquiesce to our requests. After all, if he already knows what we need, why bother telling him? And yet, "Your Father knows what you need before you ask him", but we are still commanded to pray.

Our Father who art in heaven

The first and most important step of prayer is to remember with whom we are speaking. We are not the uninvited guest in the court of a potentially hostile king trying to plead our cause like Esther. Rather, we are in the house of our Father who loves us and who desires to give good things to his children (see Matthew 7:11). Thus we have good reason to persevere even when we may initially have nothing to show for our petitions. This is a relationship of trust in which Father really does know best. If we don't get exactly what we want when we want it it can only be because he has something better saved for later.

hallowed be thy name

We are sometimes tempted to think of God as flawed or limited in the way of all other creatures. This leads us to second guessing and mistrusting his will for us, both in what he actively sends, and what he permits. This suspicion, characteristic of humanity since the fall in Eden, prevents us from really believing that all things work together for the good of those who love God. Rather, it seems that they only occasionally work together for people that love him, and probably never in our case. This is exactly the sort of suspicion we are meant to undermine by affirming his unassailable holiness. Thus it is of chief importance to us that his name be hallowed in our hearts. When that is the case we will have the wherewithal to also desire that the rest of the world recognize his holiness as well.

thy Kingdom come

In the Gospels we discovered that the life and ministry of Jesus was not about establishing a military kingdom in the way that David had done. But neither was it a mostly imaginary invisible reality. It took concrete form in the gathering of the twelve apostles. They became the twelve pillars of a new transnational Israel into which all nations are now meant to be gathered. Their successors, the bishops continue the work entrusted to them by Jesus. The parables about the kingdom told by Jesus are thus often about the growth and progress of the Church in the world through the ages. All of them remind us that the Kingdom can never be rightly understood as a merely human project. What is needed for Kingdom growth is not so much techniques or strategies but more of the Spirit. Since we ourselves receive anointing is priest, prophet, and king in our baptism we are not meant to merely watch passively as others build the kingdom. It is our royal duty as well.

thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.

Even now in heaven God's will is always accomplished perfectly and entirely. But earth is obviously another story. Yet we recognize a day is coming when all things will be subject to him, when there will be no more crying or tears, but only the unhindered giving and receiving of love. Still, we sometimes feel a need to be in control, to reserve the right to do something other than God's perfect will for us, even if it proves destructive in the end, or to settle for less than all he has planned for us. When the human will of Jesus might have preferred to avoid the cross even he prayed, "not my will, but yours, be done" (see Luke 22:42). So we too must practice submitting our self-will to the will of God. The end results will be worth it.

Only after completing these God focused petitions do we go on to pray for ourselves. Once we've remembered who he is and affirmed that he has the first place in our lives it becomes safe to ask for what we want, since we are now more likely to ask for what we ought to want, rather than what our ego would ask, which is "to spend it on your passions" (see James 4:3).

Give us this day our daily bread;
and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us;
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.

Chris Tomlin - Good Good Father

 

17 June 2026 - seen and unseen

Today's Readings
(Audio)

Take care not to perform righteous deeds
in order that people may see them;
otherwise, you will have no recompense from your heavenly Father.

It isn't a bad thing to occasionally receive appreciation from others for the righteous deeds we do. But it is a problem when we become dependent on them for our motivation. If we only do things that can excite the admiration of others than much that needs to be done might remain not done. It will be as though those others are ultimately the ones in charge, giving us our marching orders, rather than God himself.

When you give alms, do not blow a trumpet before you,
as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets
to win the praise of others.

We can't be limited in our almsgiving only to those things that other people notice. Even when there are people out there who care enough to reward good work with approval, they are not in a position to do so always and in every case. And that means that the human approval we gain by our good works will be a fickle friend. Even the good feelings we may produce in our own hearts by doing good and seeing ourselves as good people often prove unreliable. If we grow too addicted to human praise what happens when we can find any, either from others, or even ourselves? Will we nevertheless persist in doing what we ought? This is why Jesus does not encourage us to seek no reward whatever, but rather to count on God to reward us. We know that everything we do to bring us closer to him will eventually pay off. But we know better than to expect immediate one to one compensation from him. Rather, we grow in our capacity for him in ways that is often invisible even to ourselves, until he eventually comes and fills the space we have created with his own presence. It is he himself who desires to be our chief reward.

When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites,
who love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on street corners
so that others may see them.
Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward.

When we do things because it helps us to project a certain self-image to others this too is an unreliable motivation. It may work partially, for a time. But it quickly becomes an addiction that is increasingly difficult to satisfy. We have to become more and more extreme in our behavior to continue to get others to notice, let alone to impress them. Before long our religiosity has shifted from impressive to intimidating or even annoying. Aside from how we are likely to come across there is the more important truth that God would not have us use prayer, which is supposed to be the means by which we grow in relationship with him, for any lesser agenda. We don't want to cause scandal by appearing indifferent to the things of God. But it would be better for us if we could keep the depths of our devotion hidden and appear unexceptional to others, more willing to reveal our flaws and our shared humanity than supposed strength. Sometimes, it is true, we do need to set an example for others. Like Paul we may even need to say, "Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ" (see First Corinthians 11:1) and thus reveal some aspects of our spiritual life to others. But when this is required of us we must also be careful to insist that "we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us" (see Second Corinthians 4:7).

When you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites.
They neglect their appearance,
so that they may appear to others to be fasting.

Another thing that people are unreliable at providing is pity. We may well learn to seek this from them by the way we present ourselves to them, hoping that they can help to assuage the suffering we feel. We may even do more than mere honest self-presentation and play up our misery in hopes that others notice. Receiving sympathy from others is not a bad thing, any more than receiving earned praise from them is a bad thing. But the fact of the matter is that people are unreliable, and ultimately incapable of giving us what we need. We may find in their compassion a partial and occasional answer to our grief. But God's heart is not fickle like human hearts. That is why we are called by the psalmist to "pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us" (see Psalm 62:8). His mercy and love are constant, always available to us, whenever we seek them. But if we are too busy seeking the pity of our neighbors we will tend to be too preoccupied to turn to God.

But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face,
so that you may not appear to others to be fasting,
except to your Father who is hidden.
And your Father who sees what is hidden will repay you.

 

Songs In His Presence - Trust Him (Psalm 62)

 

16 June 2026 - a different kind of love

Today's Readings
(Audio)

Loving our enemies is a valuable test for us because in their case we know that we aren't being motivated by our own ego. With others we can easily convince ourselves that our love is altruistic while still being motivated mostly by what we ourselves receive. Yes, at times and in certain contexts it may seem to be primarily us giving and others receiving. But still, we may do such things for the way it makes others think about us, or the way it enables us to think about ourselves. Not so with enemies. With them our egos are chaffed as we go against our natural disposition to hostility and instead respond with kindness.

But I say to you, love your enemies
and pray for those who persecute you,

While we don't care to admit it we do tend to put people into categories. There are those we see as deserving of our love and those we see as having disqualified themselves. We might easily buy a coffee and a sandwich for someone with no place to live and no job. But we could hardly be bothered to even spare a polite word to someone with an opposite political point of view to our own. To give food to the hungry is obviously a good thing. But it is also something that more easily conduces to feeling good. To greet others who are not are political brothers with nothing but sincerity and kindness means by definition that we don't feeling smug and superior as a consequence. But it does make us more like Jesus who came to call everyone, not just those who were already onboard with his program, since, indeed, no one was. 

When we manage to love our enemies we become the peacemakers who will be called the sons of God. And therefore Jesus says, "you may be children of your heavenly Father". His love does not discrimination on the basis of who can reciprocate, since, after all, none of us can. It does not exclude even enemies. For if it did, we ourselves would never have been able to become his friends. He died for us while we were still hostile to him. But now he really does call us his friends (see John 15:15). And this is meant to be the model for our own love. It is not mere subjective abstraction. It is not just imaging that we have no enemies, or pretending a love which is merely in our minds. It is a love for enemies that is so real that it actually has a chance of turning them into our friends.

for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good,
and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust.

Let's stop making judgments about who is deserving and who is not. We don't have to enable or empower those given over to evil. But we do have to love them, and not merely in words. If they are in fact as given over to evil as we imagine, it may be because they have not known such love as Jesus enjoins on us. They may have experienced life where they felt they had to earn every affirmation they received. They may not know that they have value that is independent of anything they can do, simply because God made them and he loves them. But, in a small way, we can help to reveal this to them.

So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.

The call to be perfect means many things. But today, for our purposes we can think about it as having no blind spots in our compassion. Thus, if we do have enemies, we have opportunities, opportunities to love even without obvious reward, to become peacemakers, and to reveal God's love to the world.

The Maranatha Singers - He Is Our Peace