Years ago when I was a college student, I remember that it was the fashion for the evangelical students on campus to come up to people and ask them if they had a personal relationship with Jesus. For all I know, this is still a thing, but it certainly was back then. And of course my reaction was, besides please go away and leave me alone, my reaction was it seemed like if they did have a personal relationship with Jesus that they were being really braggy and smug about it, you know, of course I have a relationship and it’s a great one, it’s easy, and that seemed wrong.…
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What’s important about these two disciples on the road to Emmaus, is that when you look closely, they are heading in the wrong direction. They are on the road out of town, going back home. Everything that happened to them, everything that drew them into Jerusalem, has all ended in a great letdown. There was going to be a revolution, and the whole world would be different. But, nothing worked out the way everyone thought. It all ended in Jesus being victimized by the powerful, and then confusion and disappointment and friends scattered to the four winds. They did hear unconfirmed reports that Jesus is missing, maybe risen from the…
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Sometimes the scripture readings we hear don’t seem very human to us. Just for one example, there is that second reading today from the book of Revelation, angels surrounding a throne, countless creatures singing and shouting, everything in the universe all making a joyful, ecstatic noise at the same time. Perhaps that’s what resurrection will really be like, but it’s not a picture in which it’s easy to see ourselves, there dressed in white yelling our heads off, and liberated from everything. But the gospel today that we just heard is an entirely different story, it’s another resurrection story, but one with human beings in it that we ought to…
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I began a new experiment in my life this week, and I hope it’s not one I regret. I’m filling in for two months teaching 8th grade religion at the school my three daughters attend. That’s a recipe for trouble. I’m on my daughters’ territory. They each told me it was fine if I did this but I was given two instructions: First: I may never mention their names. Second: I may speak to them in the hall but only if they speak to me first. So I had trouble even before I got into the classroom and that’s when I encountered my second problem, which is what I had…
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We all like the idea of people getting “second chances.” It seems only fair, and it’s deeply ingrained in us. America is a country of second chances, a lot of times you hear it said that it’s the place where everyone can invent themselves all over again. If things don’t work out for you in one career, then just pick another one. If you need to get away from the place where you grew up, then just go somewhere else, maybe to California or Alaska, where everyone gets to start over, no questions asked. Starting over takes guts, we tell one another, and those who can pull it off deserve…