10 March 2026 - attitude adjusment

 

Today's Readings
(Audio)

“Lord, if my brother sins against me,
how often must I forgive him?
As many as seven times?”

We may think we're being generous when we suggest seven times as a limit to our forgiveness. But we are actually looking for an upward bound, a maximum that we need never exceed, a final degree after which we are free to cut others off from our mercy.

At that, the servant fell down, did him homage, and said,
‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back in full.’

The servant had some degree of self-interested, imperfect contrition. He had regret because of the order of punishment that was given. Yet even this imperfect plea was enough to move his master with compassion. He was not forgiven because he managed to manifest some kind of perfect attitude or complete conversion of heart. Up to and including the point that he begged for mercy it would not have been unthinkable for him to treat his fellow servants without it. It was once the master had shown mercy, once he had been forgiven, that change was not only possible, but expected. The mercy of the master ought to have been enough to drive his partial conversion to completion, to move him from self-interested mercy to share in his master's unlimited mercy. At that point he himself had been forgiven an unpayable debt. This experience of mercy that was not limited by the amount of the debt, nor based on performance, nor dependent on anything particularly good or noble about himself as a person, ought to have been transformative. It ought to have been an existential lesson that allowed him to show mercy to others. Indeed, we may speculate that part of the reason the master showed this servant mercy was partly so that he would in turn show mercy to the fellow servants of his who owed him much less than he himself had owed the master. It ought to have seemed easy by comparison, and something clearly expected of him.

His master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant!
I forgave you your entire debt because you begged me to.
Should you not have had pity on your fellow servant,
as I had pity on you?’

When we begin our journey in our own experience of God's forgiveness we often do so with some measure of selfishness mixed in with our contrition. Our initial motivation is not often our inability to show mercy, but our immediate need to receive it. If we try to persist as Christians using only the resources and attitude with which we begin there is a real possibility that we will eventually come up short. We'll hit our seven forgiveness maximum beyond which we will feel free and justified in our selfishness. Even Peter posited such a limit until his own heart was healed by the Lord to go beyond it. We too, if we wish to live as the Lord's disciples, must be healed of the artificial limits on mercy we try to impose. It isn't automatic. In fact, we are sometimes frightened enough by our existential vulnerability to try to assuage our anxiety by getting what we can from this world, and from others. The better way to overcome such anxiety is to experience the abundance of God, beyond all limits, flowing through us into the world. A great example of one who knew this was Daniel could have pleaded for special protection for himself, as one who was genuinely not himself guilty, but who rather took the part of his people, knowing that it was not enough for he himself to be spared if others were lost. 

But with contrite heart and humble spirit
let us be received;
As though it were burnt offerings of rams and bullocks,
or thousands of fat lambs,
So let our sacrifice be in your presence today
as we follow you unreservedly;
for those who trust in you cannot be put to shame.

Vineyard - Help Us Our God

 

9 March 2026 - something extraordinary?

 

Today's Readings
(Audio)

Amen, I say to you,
no prophet is accepted in his own native place.

People in the native place of Jesus might have assumed that they would have received some kind of special treatment in the positive sense. If he he did mighty deeds in Capernaum surely he would do still more in Nazareth. But although he found such expectations placed on him in Nazareth, he didn't find commensurate faith. In Nazareth the people seemed to think Jesus ought to prove himself. He was simply one from among their number, and they knew, or thought they knew his father. Their assumptions made it impossible for them to come before Jesus with receptive humility, which is the only appropriate attitude in his presence.

It was to none of these that Elijah was sent,
but only to a widow in Zarephath in the land of Sidon.

In the same fashion that the people of Nazareth assumed their own worthiness so too did they reject the idea that the Gentiles would be included in God's the blessings of God's covenant. Jesus sensed this in the hearts. But since it was an important part of his plan, accepting Jesus meant a willingness to let him work how and where he willed. Jesus, therefore, didn't avoid the issue. He provoked them by reminding them of an existing pattern in which God blessed the Gentiles rather than those in Israel through Elijah and Elisha, prophets like himself.

It was often the case that it was often the Gentiles who didn't take Jesus for granted, who did not assume they were deserving, and who were able to manifest an attitude of humility in his presence. The Gentiles did not presume they deserved access to the power that was at work in the Lord Jesus. They didn't write him off because they assumed they already knew everything about him. They were thus able to receive more of what Jesus had to offer.

Yet the inclusion of the Gentiles was not merely for their own sake (for our own sake) but also for that of the Jewish people. By showing that he could work where he was welcomed he hoped to provoke a holy jealousy in his covenant people, drawing them beyond their preconceptions and presumptions, inviting them to empty their cups so as to receive all that he did in fact desire to give them.

"My father," they said,
"if the prophet had told you to do something extraordinary,
would you not have done it?
All the more now, since he said to you,
'Wash and be clean,' should you do as he said."

Our expectations are often are our enemies in the spiritual life. We assume that there is one way which in which God works, or that he only works through certain people, or in certain places or situations. And we thus tend to miss all the unexpected places where he is often active, where he often seems to prefer to work. It is very much as if he is challenging us to be open, pushing back against our tendency to slide into familiarity and routine. Sometimes we'd be willing to put up with this if it was accompanied by some extraordinary and miraculous manifestations. But often the unexpected places are simple ones. We don't, for example, often expect great power to work through the Sacraments. They are familiar to us and we think we know the full spectrum of their possibility. But that is exactly the place where, when we are open, we are the most likely to find the transformative and miraculous power of Jesus at work in our midst.

Kutless - Word Of God Speak

 

8 March 2026 - well enough

Today's Readings
(Audio)

A woman of Samaria came to draw water.
Jesus said to her,
“Give me a drink.”

Jesus often acts to bless us by first asking something of us. What he asks may test our assumptions, as when he spoke to one who was both a woman and a Samaritan. And the response he desires may not be literal or straightforward. Yes, he ultimately did want a drink. In his thirst for souls he sought to be quenched by the faith of the Samaritan woman. But for this to happen she first had realize that there was something more and better, something that her life had not provided to that point. Even a rumor of living water was worth pursuing over the unsatisfactory water, water for which she had to expend much effort, but which never truly satisfied her. She had, it seemed, sought to quench her thirst in addictive patterns of behavior demonstrated by her unstable relationships. This was absolutely a well of water that was never going to satisfy her.

for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water (see Jeremiah 2:13).

We can't seek both the broken cisterns and the source of living water. A lesser thirst must give way to a higher one. Trying to satisfy ourselves at the same old wells is going to produce the same results, and leave us too tired and distracted for anything else. But this implies that we must change our patterns of behavior. We tend to push back at this point. We may suddenly become deeply interested in theological disputes that previously seemed abstract, as misdirection away from the inner work we need. It isn't that there is nothing to what we say. We might be implying something to the effect that the hope Jesus offers doesn't apply to us. We worship and must worship on a different mountain. Or so we think.

But the hour is coming, and is now here, 
when true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and truth; 
and indeed the Father seeks such people to worship him.

Whatever limits we place on God are entirely self-imposed and imaginary. He is inviting us to leave behind stale and static worship, worship that is merely performative, or merely unreflective habit, to enter into something that is real, something defined by God rather than ourselves. We are being called, led by the hope enkindled in us by the invitation of Jesus, into true worship. And in this worship in Spirit and truth we even now taste the reality that will one day satisfy us for eternity.

And hope does not disappoint, 
because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts 
through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

Songs In His Presence - Isaiah 12: You Will Draw Water

 

7 March 2026 - gifts without the giver

Today's Readings
(Audio) 

 'Father, give me the share of your estate that should come to me.'

We want the good gifts of the Father but without him nearby to see how we use them. The gifts are our priority. The giver represents a hassle and an obligation. It seems to us that he would limit our fun, impair our ability to indulge ourselves. We believe that we can get more out of his gifts if we take them to a distant country in which we imagine ourselves to be far from his concern. It is a subset of the temptation that made Adam and Eve wish to be like God. We believe that God is holding out on us, and that they only way to get everything we desire is to put distance between him and us, to vainly attempt to hide from his gaze. Yet, fearfully, he often allows us to get what we want. He will let us try our hand it using his gifts apart from him. He will allow us to become spiritually distant, not as though he no longer sees or cares about us, but such that he is no longer impinging on our conscience. But he allows us to get what we think we want only as discipline, in order that we might learn what we truly need to satisfy us.

When he had freely spent everything,
a severe famine struck that country,
and he found himself in dire need.

Without proximity to the Father we quickly exhaust the ability of mere created things to satisfy us. We can spend everything without him and finally discover that we even that was not enough. Nor is there anyone around us aside from God to whom we can turn. It is not just that no one offers us anything. It is that they do not possess what we truly need. When we hit rock bottom in that way it is then that we are most likely to remember the abundance that we left behind in the Father's house. We realize that by every human measure we have disqualified ourselves from being in the house and enjoying it. But we know that the Father has so much that even his hired workers have enough food to eat. We thus return, not expecting the way things to be as the were before we betrayed him, but still hoping for better than the famine of the distant land.

While he was still a long way off,
his father caught sight of him, and was filled with compassion.

The son didn't even finish has act of contrition before the father had embraced him, restored him, and even elevated him. He had his own finest robe placed on him and had a ring put on his finger. Sandals that the son had no doubt worn through were replaced with new ones, a fresh start. The father was not waiting to punish him, did not hold him to account for his every mistake. He had clearly been hoping and longing for his return. He not only went out to meet him, but ran to him. This was what he had desired all along.

He became angry,
and when he refused to enter the house,
his father came out and pleaded with him.

We tend to have a little of the aspect of the older brother in us as well. We don't easily accept a lack of strict justice in the case of the mistakes of others. We tend to think that if they aren't properly punished that they can't really learn. We don't always recognize the ways in which life apart from God is its own punishment and lesson. On top of that we prefer to see ourselves as innocent, not having sinned in the egregious fashion of the younger son. Yet there is something of his own misshapen desire within us, the same desire to have the fathers gifts without the father. As the older brother complained, "you never gave me even a young goat to feast on with my friends". We ourselves have rejected the abundance of the father, failing to earn it through our effort and service, too scandalized to receive it as freely given gift. The return of the younger son represents a challenge on multiple levels. It shows us how good it is to celebrate in the father's house, rather than apart from him. It reveals that this is never something we earn, but is always a gift. It's hard, because we must acknowledge all the wasted time when we failed to hear the Father saying, "My son, you are here with me always; everything I have is yours". Yet it is so good to finally hear that, to finally allow ourselves to be won over, and to enter the feast, to join the celebration, and to share in the rejoicing. This joy reaches its apex when we share the Father's heart, his concern for the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son. Jesus himself summarized his mission thus: "For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost" (see Luke 19:10).

Josiah Queen - The Prodigal

 

6 March 2026 - problematic tenancies

Today's Readings
(Audio) 

There was a landowner who planted a vineyard,
put a hedge around it,
dug a wine press in it, and built a tower.
Then he leased it to tenants and went on a journey.

The parable spoke in a particular way to those in leadership positions in Israel. They had begun to use their position for selfish ends, forgetting that they were meant to provide the fruit, spiritually nourished women and men, to the landowner at harvest time. But instead they used the produce to satisfy their own egos. When God sent warnings against lack of fidelity, the people of Israel often responded by persecuting the prophets he sent to them, much as the brothers persecuted Joseph in today's first reading. But it was something else again with Jesus. He summarized in himself the law and the prophets. As a result he would be the target, even more than the prior prophets. He was the culmination of all that the prophets were and all that they taught. And the suffering and persecution he would face was the full reality of what the lives of the prophets merely foreshadowed. But this was not the end. Though the son of the landowner would be killed, the landowner would ultimately be vindicated. Though Jesus would be put to death, the landowner would give the vineyard to new tenants through his resurrection, ascension, and gift of the Spirit. And what of those who remained steadfast in their opposition to him even after the resurrection? He would "put those wretched men to a wretched death".

At first at may seem that a parable directed to religious leaders doesn't have much to say to most of us. Yet like them we have been entrusted with a stewardship. As with those in the parable of the talents we too will be accountable for how we have used the gifts we have received. Do we remember the reason that our own vineyards exist? As in the parable, they do have defensive features. But these are not to be turned against the Lord from whom we have them. Yes, we must defend what we have been given from our spiritual opponents, the powers of darkness. But we must not come to think of the vineyards as our own even after we exert ourselves to protect them. The produce is meant to serve some larger purpose than gratifying our egos. We need to identify that purpose and honor it. We should be ready, when the son visits us, to respect him, and to give him what is his due. Neither can we shirk responsibility, burying our gifts, as though the vineyard means anything without fruit to show for it. What we have been given is not a trap, and only secondarily a test. It is primarily a gift. The landowner shares his own job and responsibility with the tenants. He does this both for their sake and the sakes of those who can then be blessed thereby. 

The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
by the Lord has this been done,
and it is wonderful in our eyes?

Part of the reason we have problems cooperating with God is that he tends to work through unlikely means. He chooses the weak to shame the strong, the foolish to shame the wise. We tend to assume that the only value of others is their ability, and thus their utility. But what makes others valuable, what makes us valuable, is ultimately the fact that God values us. He can, as it were, raise up children of Abraham from the very dust (see Luke 3:8). It's provocative when the Lord chooses in ways that don't seem strategic. The only way we can get onboard with what he is doing is by faith. Rather than taking offense or being scandalized, and perhaps eventually radicalized, we must give our full and free assent to what he is doing, how and when he is doing it. It may seem constantly on the verge of collapse, ready to fail at any moment. But the word of the Lord always proves true in the end, as it did with Joseph.

They had weighed him down with fetters,
and he was bound with chains,
Till his prediction came to pass
and the word of the LORD proved him true.

5 March 2026 - on our doorstep

Today's Readings
(Audio)

And lying at his door was a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores,
who would gladly have eaten his fill of the scraps
that fell from the rich man's table.

Scripture often challenges us to increase our circle of concern, in particular to those close to home, whom we've trained ourselves to ignore. What are the challenges near our own doors that we have simply stepped over so many times that we no longer see them? Maybe in the past they haven't seemed like our problem. Or maybe they have seemed so intractable as to make our efforts insignificant. Maybe their class, ethnicity, or religion made them seem so different as to be difficult to approach. But perhaps, as with the rich man and Lazarus, even our scraps could make a difference. Even had he kept his fancy clothes and fine food he could have gone a long way to alleviating the suffering of another simply by how he managed his waste, the scraps from his table. 

The rich man also died and was buried,
and from the netherworld, where he was in torment,
he raised his eyes and saw Abraham far off
and Lazarus at his side.

The netherworld merely unmasked the condition of the rich man's heart, which had heretofore been covered over by the temporary consolations of wealth. He sought his strength in flesh and turned away from the Lord, becoming more and more like a barren bush in the desert. We know that the Lord desired to nourish him as with streams of living water. But he wanted to do so particularly through his relationship with Lazarus. Lazarus represented an opportunity for the heart of the rich man to be resurrected and revitalized, but he closed himself to it. He focused instead on those things over which he had control. But when those things finally failed, he had only himself on which to fall back. And this closedness to God and neighbor was revealed to be hell. But sadly, it seemed too late for him to truly learn anything further at that point. He was fixed in the mold into which he had cast himself by his actions during his life. Even in death he seemed to assume that Lazarus ought to serve him. What job could the poor have besides to make the hell of the rich more tolerable? Or so he seemed to think.

When the poor man died,
he was carried away by angels to the bosom of Abraham.

The poor who hope in the Lord will one day discover that the difficulties of this life are only temporary, more than matched by the eternity of life with God. If the reality of trust in God was in their hearts during their mortal lives it will one day define their existence. It may not now superficially appear that they are connected to streams of life-giving waters. But they are the ones who need not fear, not only the heat of the change of seasons, but even death itself. For their lives will stay evergreen in the presence of God, where distress can no longer touch them (see Wisdom 3:2), bearing forever and ever the fruit of praise. The fact of this great reversal is inevitable. But it is not meant to make us complacent. If we ourselves want to be embraced by God when our own lives are over we ought to align ourselves with his priorities, doing what we can now to make the lives of those in need what he himself will one day make them forever. We are meant to signal our desire for heaven by trying to do our own small part to make the earth a little bit more heaven-like for those whom he has given us to help.

'If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets,
neither will they be persuaded
if someone should rise from the dead.'

If it was possible to be hardhearted during the time of the Old Covenant it is still possible during the time of the New. Jesus did rise from the dead, and made clear that our response to him has eternal consequences. But just as people like the rich ruler were able to ignore the parts of Moses and the prophets that were inconvenient for their lifestyles, so too do we appropriate the parts of the Gospel that affirm us while ignoring those that are more challenging. There is a direct correlation between our willingness to embrace the whole Gospel and our willingness to help those around us. But even if our hearts are rather unresponsive, we ought at least be motivated by the imperfect contrition of self-interest. Are our hearts in a condition that we would want to define our eternal reality? If not, let us turn again to the Lord, more and more, until he truly has all of us.

Brooke Ligertwood - Bless God

4 March 2026 - drinking the chalice

Today's Readings
(Audio)

"Command that these two sons of mine sit,
one at your right and the other at your left, in your kingdom."

Maybe this was seen as damage control in light of the recent prediction by Jesus of his impending death. Maybe they could use their positions to help protect him from that inevitability. Or if, God forbid, something did happen to Jesus, at least they would have something to show for the time they spent with him. Or maybe they hadn't really even processed the prediction of the cross and were seeking the seats from a merely human desire for self-advancement. But whatever their motives, their perspective was still too limited. Their vision of greatness was still, apparently, too much like that of the rulers of the Gentiles who lord it over their subjects.

They were meant, finally, to receive honor and power in the Kingdom. But they were not meant to do so in the image of the world, but rather in the image of God. They first needed to become holy and merciful as God was himself holy and merciful so that they could wield power for the sake of loving service, as God did, and Jesus himself constantly demonstrated. Half the point of earthly authority seemed to be the power to avoid drinking the chalice of suffering. But the way Jesus used his divine authority was precisely to drink the chalice, to lay down his life for his friends.

My chalice you will indeed drink,
but to sit at my right and at my left,
this is not mine to give
but is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father.

In the first instance, those who were at his right and his left were two thieves. His throne was the cross, from which, though he appeared powerless, he reigned in love. It was not yet time for James and John to share in those positions of honor. They still needed more growth before they could share the chalice of Jesus. But one day they would. 

When the ten heard this,
they became indignant at the two brothers.

The other ten failed to parse anything about the nature of power from what had been said thus far. They only heard that James and John were trying to get an edge on the rest of them, and establish themselves as greater than the others. They didn't clock the fact that Kingdom power was always tied to self-sacrificial love. The greatest among the disciples would be the ones who gave themselves most completely to love of God and love of neighbor. But they were too afraid of missing the starting gun of an earthly competition, too afraid that others might gain advantages and useful privileges while they were left in the dust. So Jesus spelled things out more directly.

Rather, whoever wishes to be great among you shall be your servant;
whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave.
Just so, the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve
and to give his life as a ransom for many.

Our first reading today shows Jeremiah demonstrating the proper use of power and authority. In doing so he became very clearly a type and foreshadowing of Jesus himself.

Must good be repaid with evil
that they should dig a pit to take my life?
Remember that I stood before you
to speak in their behalf,
to turn away your wrath from them.

Even when the things we want are good things we tend to want them for the wrong reasons, or at least with mixed motives. We typically want the crown without the cross, sometimes specifically so that we can avoid the cross. But this only shows us how far our hearts are from love, and the degree to which we are not yet ready to be entrusted with Kingdom authority. But the world needs us to get ready. It needs the love which the Lord Jesus desires to show through us. We too are called to share the chalice, in ways unique to each of us. Let us pray to the Father that he prepares us for that day.

Brotherhood Of Hope - To Love You And To Make You Loved