4 July 2026 - while the bridegroom is with them

Today's Readings
(Audio)

Can the wedding guests mourn
as long as the bridegroom is with them?

The disciples of John approached Jesus and asked him why his own disciples seemed to be less committed than those of John and the Pharisees. Those groups seemed rigorous in discipline, whereas by comparison Jesus and his followers must have seemed like lax, as though they were living a never ending party. Even Jesus himself had somehow acquired a reputation as a "glutton and a drunkard" (see Matthew 11:19). This was, after all, the same Jesus who supplied abundant wine to the wedding feast at Cana when they ran out after three days of festivities (see John 2:1-12). 

The disciples of John were only thinking on the basis of comparison of themselves with others, with the only criterion being who could do the most. If some fasting was sometimes good, then wasn't more indicative of a greater spiritual seriousness? But such an approach was too inflexible. It neglected the appropriate response to the presence of the divine bridegroom, which was primarily supposed to be a response of joy and of celebration. And although they didn't realize they were doing it, ignoring the presence of the bridegroom, acting on their own impulses when they were in fact present at a wedding feast, was a response evinced a lack of gratitude. It was a little like those people in the parable who were invited to a wedding feast and yet made excuses in order to continue to pursue their normal affairs (see Matthew 22:1-14).

The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them,
and then they will fast.

It was not that the disciples of Jesus were never to fast. But it was rather by the measure of his presence that they learned when and why fasting would one day be appropriate. Jesus did not come in the first place to impose spiritual disciplines. Rather, he offered a relationship with himself that was to the the basis on the life of his disciples. They were not to go off and fast as much as they could. But neither were to eschew fasting entirely. Rather, they were to fast only after they were transformed by the joy of his presence. That was, as it were, the baseline of spiritual joy which they could then learn to prefer to physical food and drink. Without this reality as an anchor the individual teachings of the new law could do more harm than good. They could not simply be patched onto one's old life or poured into at as though they were simply more of what he already possessed. Living the new law of the Gospel required grace that one only received from coming to know Jesus as bridegroom and Lord. It was because his presence was so good and so worth seeking that his disciples would eventually fast. The new wine of the Gospel was then poured into the fresh wineskins, individuals who were new creations in Christ.

We can't merely add the disciplines and duties of the Christian life over the top of a life that is still fundamentally egocentric, one that is all about us, and expect good results. But when we have known the joy of the Lord, and realize that the preliminary stage of the wedding banquet has begun, we begin to understand how and why we ought to save room for the final course when the bridegroom returns. We don't want to be so sated on the things of earth that we lose taste for the better feast that awaits us. And we do this knowing deeply in our souls how much that feast will be, for even here and know we have a foretaste of it. This is why Church commands us to fast before receiving holy communion. It is not an epic achievement when we do so by any means. But it is practice in living out the logic of waiting for the bridegroom and setting our hearts on him in which we learn how well he rewards those who seek him.

David Ruis - We Will Dance

 

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