If You Don’t Get It, You Don’t Get It
In this week’s Gospel reading,* Jesus tells a parable about two men who had gone to the Temple to pray. One was a Pharisee, whose prayer reminded God that he wasn’t like other people, but someone who conscientiously followed demanding spiritual practices. The other was a tax collector, slumped in a dark corner not daring […]
Keeping the Faith
When the path that Jesus’s followers were travelling got difficult, Jesus wanted to encourage them to not lose faith, so he told them a story about a widow who keeps knocking on the door of an unjust judge.* We don’t really know anything about the case, except that widows in that time and place were […]
Have Mercy
Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem and ten lepers cry out to him for mercy. When Jesus sees them he instructs that they go show themselves to the priests. As they go, they are made clean. One man, a Samaritan, realizing he is healed on the way, turns back to Jesus and falls at […]
Do What is Ours to Do
I wonder if they were surprised when Jesus said they didn’t need more faith, that even the tiniest seed of faith is enough. What matters is to put faith into practice, to do what is ours to do. Like bookends, at the start is, “Increase our faith,” and at the end, “We have done what […]