Face to Face

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God is serving up some experiential learning this week. I have wrestled with how to put this reflection together, re-writing the start of it ad nauseam. I even woke up in the middle of a few nights thinking on it. #iseeyougod

If you’ll limp along with me and Jacob, I’d like to offer some disjointed observations and reflections. I’ll follow the lead of the Psalmist and Matthew’s crowd of 5000+, trusting that God will confront us with blessing in this exercise, even if – like Paul – I struggle to understand exactly how that’s going to work. Read more

The Heart of the Matter

Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time

Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

The Pharisees have travelled from Jerusalem out to the region of Lake Galilee to find Jesus, but this is not a spiritual pilgrimage. We quickly discover they have come to find fault: “Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?” Isn’t it interesting that the accusation is not leveled at Jesus himself, whom we might assume was performing all of the rituals the Pharisees were so focused on?

But, before we get to Jesus’ response, we need to pause and really hear the Pharisees. Read more