Sermon

I warn you; you’ll likely not find the following joke as funny as I do.  As my wife frequently points out, that’s true of most – if not all – of my jokes....

What’s not to love about today’s text? Peter experiences the highs and lows of his faith life in ways that we can surely relate to. One minute he’s making an awesome confession of faith – the first time in Matthew’s Gospel in which a disciple has recognized and proclaimed Jesus…...

I do not know about you, but I always wince when I read the following words of Jesus: “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs” (vs 26). He is speaking to the Canaanite woman who has asked him to heal her demon-possessed…...

You have no doubt heard me say, many times, that Peter is my patron saint – along with Óscar Romero. The latter because of his profound example, and the former because he is a wee bit of a mess, just like me. Peter is always in trouble; always messing up;…...

Whenever I go to the cinema to watch a movie, I’m once again surprised by how different the experience is compared with watching at home: it is immersive. Gone are the distractions of traffic in the street, a dog barking at passersby, cellphone notifications to check, and so forth. In…...

Here comes a bunch of parables, flowing so thick and fast that it feels like drinking from a firehose! Mustard seed, yeast, hidden treasure, fine pearls, a fish net. Each parable describing the Kingdom of Heaven. So many that one may struggle to get the gist of Jesus’ teaching. Breaking…...

The old joke is told of the Scottish pastor who, in the throes of a Bible-thumping, barn-storming sermon, declares, “They will collect out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers, and they will throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing…...

Whenever I have a sense that my verbosity is not being helpful, or that a particularly complex turn of phrase of mine obscures more than it reveals, I find comfort in texts such as Matthew 10:40-42....