21 Nov 2022
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“Amen, I say to you. This day you will be with me in paradise.”
We should all long to hear Jesus speak those words to us. And, if we are good stewards and caretakers of all of the gifts God has given to us (all that we are and have and ever will be), we will one day hear those words. With...
14 Nov 2022
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“All that you see here – the days will come when there will not be left one stone up another. ”
Jesus grew up in the small village of Nazareth on top of a craggy mountain in the northern part of Israel. Like the vast majority of the people of his day he lived in a small house with a lower space where animals were brought in at...
8 Nov 2022
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“He is not God of the dead, but of the living.”
The best teachers provide information and teach us to ask the right questions. Facts should lead to the questions, “Who, what, why, when, how and why not?” In today’s gospel Jesus is confronted by a group of Sadducees who did not...
1 Nov 2022
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“He has gone to stay at the house of a sinner.”
Are there any like Zacchaeus among us? Can any of us say “I shall give HALF of my possessions to the poor, and if I have defrauded anyone I will repay them four times over.” There are some. But we live in a world in which...
25 Oct 2022
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“O God, be merciful to me, a sinner”
Jesus tells of a Pharisee and a tax collector in the temple to pray. Actually, the Pharisee went to the temple to brag: “O God, I thank you I am not like the rest of humanity . . .” The Pharisee is probably a good man. But he seems...
18 Oct 2022
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“There was a judge in a certain town who neither feared God nor respected any human being.”
Sadly that describes many people in power in the time of Jesus and in our own time. But Jesus describes a woman whose persistence moves the self centered judge to render a just judgment. Notice that Jesus does not say that the judge ruled...
8 Oct 2022
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“Has none but this foreigner returned to give thanks to God?”
Would we have been the one who returned to thank Jesus? Or would we have been one of the nine? Gratitude begins with the awareness that someone has done something for us. In order to be grateful to God we must be aware that God is the...
26 Sep 2022
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“Abraham told the rich man, ‘My child, remember you received what was good during your lifetime while Lazarus likewise received what was bad.’”
Jesus paints a depressing picture of Lazarus, a poor man covered with sores laying at the door of a rich man who obviously ignored the poor man just outside of his house. Both men die. From the netherworld the rich man sees...
19 Sep 2022
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“Prepare a full account of your stewardship!”
Here are some simple truths about stewardship you might want to keep in mind: A steward is a person who is given responsibility for the preservation and productivity of the property of another. The first question of a Good Steward is...