It is hard to read this portion of the Gospel without tears coming into my eyes. I think it’s Jesus saying, “Simon, Simon, listen!” that gets to me - it’s so urgent, so full of passion and hope. Jesus knows that he only has a few hours left, and that if his disciples are going … Continue reading Luke 22:24-46 The Urgency of Hope
The disciples knew, of course, what was coming. For weeks and weeks Jesus had been talking about Jerusalem, and how he would be arrested, tortured, and killed there. He also told them that he would rise from the dead, but that was so strange and mysterious that their minds couldn’t rest on it, but instead … Continue reading Luke 22:1-23 The Last Supper
Jesus issues a duo warning in this passage. First, when you fail (and we are all bound to fail), don’t lead anyone after you in your failure. Second, the surest guard against failure is the encouragement and forgiveness of community. If we are to accept the schema of self that I’ve talked about previously in … Continue reading Luke 17:1-10 We Will Find Ourselves in Communities of Forgiveness and Grace
When Elizabeth gives birth to John, her neighbors and relatives gather around in joy. This is the second gang of people we’ve seen in Luke’s Gospel, the first being the crowd at the temple who gathered around Zechariah after he emerged from his encounter with an angel. I think it’s fair to say that they … Continue reading Luke 1:57-80 Joy, Community, and Wilderness
When Greg Hitzhusen was a student at Yale Divinity School, he and a few others started an Outing Club, which took students out onto the campus for weekly meditations, and also took a spring break hiking trip every year. One day, while they were hiking in North Carolina, they came out onto Shining Rock at … Continue reading How do we form pilgrim communities?
KPB Stevens 