16th Sunday after Pentecost (9/28/25): (Lk 16:19-31) Ten years ago, our Communications Coordinator Chris Wight taught me the acronym “TL;DR”—“too long; didn’t read.” As a writer who tends toward (and is admittedly constrained by) longer-form reflection, I’ve always found that a bit snarky. But I also understand that in a world inundated by all manner…
Lk 12:49-56 is a bit of a head scratcher, at least from a narrative point of view. But it is part of the final section of an extended teaching cycle—the longest uninterrupted discursive series in the Third Gospel.
This week I am commenting on Lk 12:22-34, a keystone teaching that has been marginalized in the lectionary (Sunday’s RCL gospel is 12:32-40). By skipping over it, the RCL cuts out the heart of Jesus argument following on the 8th Sunday’s story of the rich farmer.
This reflection on the Lord’s Prayer highlights its transformative significance in teaching believers persistent prayer for divine justice and community cooperation. It stresses understanding its biblical roots beyond mere recitation, connecting sin and debt, and emphasizes the call for mutual aid under God’s covenant. The Prayer serves as a vital directive for ongoing discipleship.
This Sunday’s text (Lk 10:1–11) is Jesus’ reiteration—in greater detail—of his earlier “missionary instructions” (9:1–6). This double tradition, unique to Luke, articulates the gospel’s most important—and tragically most disregarded—teaching about evangelism as community-building. In our 2021 Healing Haunted Histories: A Settler Discipleship of Decolonization (pp 132-141), Elaine and I focused on the “short version.” We…
3rd Sunday after Pentecost, 2025 The demons of war: Last Sunday’s gospel spoke poignantly to the moment, Trump having joined the bombing of Iran the day before. In Luke’s story of Gerasa, Jesus names and “banishes” the many demons of imperial militarism that were possessing the man of Gerasa and occupying his land. These demons…
In a backdrop of war and oppression, the call for peace and justice is emphasized through the celebration of Juneteenth and the Lukan gospel of Jesus healing the Gerasene demoniac. A twice-monthly Zoom forum will provide resources for studying gospel readings and engaging discussions, beginning July 2. Registration details are included.
The second half of May, between travel and conferencing at Kirkridge, were demanding and exhausting, so I wasn’t able to get a blog posted last week for Ascension Sunday. So I’ll include a few comments on that before I focus on Pentecost (a longer reflection on the Ascension will appear in this month’s Partner’s Circle…
Twenty-five years ago, BCM began helping build popular schools to nurture radical theological and social movement literacy. This vision arose from conversations with friend/mentor Bill Wylie-Kellermann, who shares a parallel “genealogy of faith” with me. Over the next decade, the Word & World project curated spaces around the country for intersectional community, conspiracy and collaboration…
The post discusses Palm Sunday as a significant closure to Lent, emphasizing its historical and contemporary implications of public liturgy for justice in society. It reflects on Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem as subversive against occupying powers and shares modern practices of reclaiming Palm Sunday through public demonstrations and calls for social justice.