23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C, RCL)

We are God’s artifacts—beautiful, incomplete, and mysterious.

Deuteronomy 30:15–20; 1 Corinthians 3:1–9; Matthew 5:21–37

Our identities—gender and otherwise—are shaped by community and God.

Nine trans Christians tell their stories.

There had to be something more to Jesus.

In this week’s Gospel text, the piercing hyperbole about family and discipleship normally receives top billing homiletically. However, I am newly struck by Jesus’ words regarding building a tower.

I played competitive tennis as a teenager. At one point, a new player started working with my coach. He was a natural athlete—quick, agile, and well coordinated. I was impressed.

My coach was not. He said, “That kid will never be any good.”

For those who are uncomfortable with any suggestion that our future is in our own hands, this might be one of those weeks to abandon the assigned texts on theological grounds. (It is extra tempting given the occasion of “Rally Sunday.”) In Deuteronomy we hear that if we obey we shall live and be blessed, but if our heart turns away we shall perish. And then very directly, “Choose life so that you and your descendants may live.”

Really?

The doctrine of justification really occurs only in Romans and Galatians. But wherever you look in Paul's letters, you see him arguing and working for the unity of the church.

This is not a Sunday for soft-pedalling the gospel. Moses and Jesus portray the life of faith as a "yes" or a "no" to God with lives that obey or that disobey. It is little wonder that it is common to summarize Jesus' teachings in the Sermon on the Mount with one verse, the "Golden Rule" (Matthew 7:12).

Somewhere along the line, choosing to worship the God met in Jesus became a matter of life and death for me.

Here in Tidewater, Virginia, we make our way from city to city via a series of tunnels. As we approach each tunnel a series of signs warn us: “No HAZMATS” and “HAZMATS must exit here.” Trucks carrying hazardous materials of one sort or another provide a danger anywhere, but in tunnels the risk is magnified.

John Calvin grounded our need to know God in our createdness: "What is the chief end of human life?" he asked, and answered, "To know God by whom we were created." This yearning is not the same as our need to "know" other human beings.

Blessings and curses? My usual relational language with God does not include curses.

History is written by the winners, and Judas didn't win.