Week 1 (Year 2, NL)

I once saw children's ministry as a steppingstone to something else. This attitude put me in league with the hindering kind of disciples.

Today’s Gospel lesson, though not a traditional baptismal text, embodies the spirit of the sacrament: the ones bringing the children to Jesus are not necessarily parents; they are “people” moved to care for these little ones. This choice of language leads us to ask, if the adults bringing the children to Jesus are not their parents, then who are they? Why do these men and women stand up to the disciples for the sake of children that are not biologically theirs?

What might God have to say about the creatures most people don’t think of as lovable?

Simon and Andrew immediately left their nets and followed. If only we could respond so quickly.

The first Sunday of Lent is the best time of the year to talk about sin. Many people in the church, especially the mainline church, are stuck when it comes to the overlap of sin and sensuality. No one really wants to be the pastor who comes over all judgmental about sex.

The serpent was right: when Eve and Adam ate the fruit, they did not die; they saw more clearly.

How to approach Jesus' strict teaching about divorce and remarriage as it appears in Mark's Gospel, without the somewhat more lenient amendments of Matthew and Paul?

If it were me, I would have stayed in the fishing boat or dithered about what to do until Jesus was just a speck on the horizon.

Marriage does not exist only for companionship or procreation or complementarity. It has a cruciform shape, like other ascetical practices, and is a transformative experience for the two individuals. In marriage, God intends not only to alleviate human loneliness but to effect human salvation.

Chang Lee survived two brutal wars in his mother country, Korea. He lived through the dangers posed by Japanese bombs, Chinese howitzers, North Korean minefields and American carbines. But he did not survive an encounter with a mugger in the hallway of his own apartment in the U.S. He was brutally stabbed, and died at the age of 80. Chang Lee’s family were members of the parish I served in Queens.

Those first fisher disciples left more than their nets by the seashore.