Waxing Theological

7-27-14 (Ordinary 17A/Proper 12A) Romans 8:26-39; Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52                                                              Big Things in Small Packages     Jesus’ parables have many things in common with each other - they used imagery that would have been familiar to the people heard Jesus tell the story. The images that Jesus used were used intentionally - they evoked certain very specific thoughts, assumptions, and ideas in their audience.  But most importantly, those images which Christ uses in the parables are also full of surprises - the moment Jesus’ audience thinks they know exactly where Jesus is going with a story, Jesus pulls the rug out from under their feet and teaches something entirely different from what they expected.  Poor beggars covered in sores are taken to heaven while rich men suffer in hunger and heat.  Weeds are allowed to grow alongside wheat.  Women celebrate over lost coins and shepherds forsake entire flocks to chase after one lost lamb.     But

7-6-14 (Ordinary 14A/Proper 9A) Romans 7:15-25a; Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30                                                   Darned if You Do, Darned if You Don’t     We’ve all been there at some point in our lives.  We’ve found ourselves in that place where no matter what we do, it’s wrong.  You bring them home chocolate ice cream when they wanted strawberry, but if you’d brought home strawberry they would have wanted chocolate.  You’re running late getting back from getting groceries, so you skip going to one of the other stores you had on your list so that you can get home sooner and your family isn’t waiting for you for dinner, but then when you get home, they’re upset that you didn’t get what they wanted from the store you skipped.  You see the light turning red, but the car behind you riding six inches from your bumper shows no signs of slowing down and your choices are to run the red light and get a ticket, or slam on your breaks and get into an accident.  No matter what you do di

I've had the incredible blessing today to be able to hold my own newborn daughter - just a little over 48 hours since watching her burst forth into this world.  She is beautiful and it's amazing this feeling of falling in love with a whole new human being, a young and somewhat alien child that I still can't believe is ours, who has blonde hair in a family of people with primarily dark hair, and yet is still most definitely ours .  And yet, even as I hold this child and marvel at her mystery, I can't help but reflect at the same time on the literally thousands of children who are currently being detained right now in various refugee centers throughout our country.  Children who have traveled hundreds of thousands of miles, being given up by their parents and smuggled into America illegally so that they can escape their home countries, torn apart by war, by abuse, by child sex trafficking and, as hard to believe as it is... things even worse than that.  I think ab