Year AAdventThird Sunday of Advent Matthew 11:2-11 Contextual Background: The third Sunday of Advent pivots toward joy. Isaiah envisions deserts blooming, bodies healed, and captives singing on the road home. Joy is not a denial of suffering but a sign of God’s […]
Year AAdventSecond Sunday of Advent Matthew 3:1-12 Contextual Background: John the Baptist’s voice rang out in the wilderness, far from the centers of power. His call to repentance wasn’t about private guilt but about a collective realignment of life toward God’s justice. […]
Year A AdventFirst Sunday of AdventMatthew 24:36-44 Contextual Background: Advent opens with a call to stay awake. In first-century Judea, under Roman rule, people lived under the weight of fear and despair. The temptation was either to withdraw or to fight back […]
Season after PentecostReign of Christ – Proper 29 (34) Luke 23:33-43 Contextual Background: On the Sunday before Advent begins, the church proclaims Christ’s reign. But the gospel text takes us not to a throne or a palace, but to a hill outside […]
2 Corinthians 6:14 Do not be mismatched with unbelievers. For what partnership is there between righteousness and lawlessness? Or what fellowship is there between light and darkness? Reflection This passage is typically interpreted to mean that Christians should not respect, relate to, […]
ts 2:42-47 Awe came upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles. All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as […]
Acts 4:12 There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among mortals by which we must be saved. Reflection This is another example of a verse often quoted to say that Christianity is the […]
Mark 7:24-30 From there Jesus set out and went away to the region of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know he was there. Yet he could not escape notice, but a woman whose little daughter had […]
Hebrews 9:22 Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins. Reflection This verse is often used as definitive proof that God 1) requires sacrifice through the shedding of […]
Matthew 25:31-46 ‘When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from […]