If there was ever a gospel reading that invited a polite yawn, today’s lesson from Luke might be it. In this passage, Jesus comes across like some sort of 1st-century Miss Manners as he divvies out advice about where to sit when you’re a guest and whom to invite when you are hosting your own dinner.

Among the most popular tales of the Celtic monks of Ireland is the story of St. Brendan. St. Brendan was an Irish monk living in the 6th century. According to legend, he and fourteen monks set sail from Ireland in a small ship known as a coracle or  curragh , in search of the legendary "Island of the Blessed." The details of his fantastic journey, recorded in the 9th-century tale, the  Navagatio , or "The Voyage of St. Brendan," survive in nearly 120 manuscripts and was immen

Proper 16C: Luke 13.10-17 “Now, don’t go getting any ideas.” That’s the message the synagogue leader has for everyone gathered who’d just witnessed the healing of the crippled women. “Not here, not today, not for the rest of you. It’s not right. It’s not proper. It’s the Sabbath. You’ve got six other days to be healed. The Sabbath is off limits. Come back tomorrow.”   Can you imagine seeing someone who’s disabled, who’s been disabled for years, getting healed, cured of their

In our Gospel reading this Sunday, Jesus announces his desire to set the world on fire, to ignite a movement that would spread and ultimately enflame the whole world. Set against the backdrop of Jesus' ardent ambition, Garth Brooks' hit song from the 90s challenges those who wish to "stand outside the fire."  In the emotional and inspirational music video, a high school student with Down syndrome named Brandon decides to not participate in the institution's Special Olympics b

"I have come to set fire to the earth, fire! Oh, I can’t wait to see it all up in flames! Do you think I've come to bring peace? No! Peace is boring! Strife, division! I've come to split up families, divide homes, turn father against son, mother against daughter. Fire! Fire!” Luke has, believe it or not, softened Jesus’ words, for in Matthew’s version Jesus sounds downright violent: "I came not to bring peace, but a sword." A sword!  

More often than not, in everyday usage, “faith” is thought of as being the opposite of reason. Faith is how we believe in something that has no objective basis, “for which there is no proof,” as the dictionary has it. But from that perspective, one could “have faith” that Pluto is made of bleu cheese, or that the city of Richmond will grind to a halt tomorrow on account of a freak snowstorm. One might argue that faith in God is of a different sort than those outlandish  examp