The Better Part

Matthew 10.37-42 Listen to the Gospel and Reflection Last Sunday we heard Jesus tell the disciples that they are more special than sparrows. We remember that disciples are people who follow Jesus and learn from him. Jesus wants the disciples to go out to teach more people, so that those people can follow and learn, too. We wonder if the disciples feel uncomfortable about going out to teach, away from Jesus. They know people want Jesus, not them. In the Gospel reading for this

Matthew 10.37-42 Listen to the Gospel and Reflection Last Sunday, when we heard Jesus preparing his disciples to go out to teach about the Kingdom of God, we thought about the right order of things. First, Jesus speaks and we listen. Then, we go out to tell the world what we have heard. In this way, we are prophets. This week Jesus continues to prepare his disciples to go out as prophets, and again he speaks about the right order of things. Whoever loves father or mother more

Matthew 10.37-42 Listen to the Gospel and Reflection Last Sunday, when we heard Jesus preparing his disciples to go out to teach, we thought about the fortitude needed to build the Kingdom of God. In the Gospel this week, Jesus continues with his instructions, and as he does so, he repeats one word over and over. “Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s

Matthew 10.26-33 (for the youngest children, simply verses 29-31) Listen to the Gospel and Reflection We know that Jesus has many disciples. Disciples are people who follow Jesus and learn from him. Jesus teaches them, but he also sends them out with a buddy so that they can tell other people about the Kingdom of God. In the reading for this Sunday, Jesus prepares his disciples to go out. Some of them worry about going away from Jesus. Two times he tells them to have no fear—

Matthew 10.26-33 Listen to the Gospel and Reflection In the reading for this Sunday, Jesus prepares his disciples to go out into the world to tell people about the Kingdom of God. Some of the disciples worry, though. What will they say to the people? What will the people think? Jesus says, nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known. A great force reveals truth to the world. Truth covered up, gets uncovered. Truth kept in se

Matthew 10.26-33 Listen to the Gospel and Reflection This Sunday, we hear Jesus preparing his disciples to go out into the world to spread the Good News about the Kingdom of God. It seems like a kind of pep talk, to get them pumped up before they go out. Why do the disciples need such encouragement? Three times Jesus tells the disciples not to be afraid: So have no fear of them... Do not fear those... So do not be afraid... Let's face it, those disciples are afraid. They are

Matthew 9.36 - 10.8 Listen to the Gospel and Reflection Wherever Jesus goes, people follow—crowds of people, so many people! They want so much to be near him. They want to listen to what he says. In the Gospel for this Sunday, we hear how Jesus feels about these crowds of people who come to him. “When he saw the crowds, Jesus had compassion for them…” Jesus has compassion for them… What does that mean? Compassion means Jesus knows how the crowds feel and he understands that f

Matthew 9.36 - 10.8 Listen to the Gospel and Reflection We know that Jesus has a group of twelve people close to him. Sometimes the Gospels call them the Twelve, or the twelve disciples, or the apostles. In the Gospel for this Sunday, we hear their names. We hear also what Jesus gives them. The Gospel begins with Jesus looking out at the crowds of people who gather to listen to him. “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless,

Matthew 9.36 - 10.8 Listen to the Gospel and Reflection During Jesus' time on earth, he speaks often about the Kingdom of God. He shows people glimpses of the Kingdom of God, too, when he performs miracles. Always, always, he invites others to share in his work of bringing about the Kingdom of God here on earth. In the Gospel for this Sunday we see the beginning of this sharing of the work of the Kingdom. When Jesus saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they wer

John 6.51-59 (full reading). For the youngest child, we read only verse 51. Listen to the Gospel and Reflection We know that Jesus says he is the Good Shepherd to help us understand who he is. But Jesus has other ways of helping us understand him. In the Gospel for this Sunday, Jesus tells us a little more about who he is. We can put this new information beside what we already know about the Good Shepherd so that we understand even more. Listen: I am the living bread that cam

John 6.51-59 Listen to the Gospel and Reflection This Sunday has a great long name: The SOLEMNITY OF THE MOST HOLY BODY AND BLOOD OF CHRIST. Sometimes we call it by a shorter name: Corpus Christi. Either way, we think more about who Jesus is and who we are with him. In the Gospel for this Sunday, he says, I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh. He tel

John 6.51-59 and the first reading: Deuteronomy 8.2-3, 14-16 Listen to the Gospel and Reflection This Sunday is the SOLEMNITY OF THE MOST HOLY BODY AND BLOOD OF CHRIST. Jesus helps us to understand who he is and what he does. In the Gospel for this Sunday, Jesus begins with something that every one of the people who gather about him recognize: I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Every person gathered knows about the bread that came down from heaven. They all kn

John 3.16-18 Listen to the Gospel and Reflection In the Gospel for this Sunday, we hear Jesus speaking to a man named Nicodemus. Nicodemus seems to have a question deep in his heart: "Who are you, God?" Nicodemus knows Jesus, but he wants to know more. Jesus says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” Jesus begins with God. God loves the world—the mountains, the oceans, the lakes

John 3.16-18 Listen to the Gospel and Reflection This Sunday is called Trinity Sunday. We say that God is Trinity—One God, three Persons. It does not seem to make a lot of sense. It is mystery. On this Sunday, we stop to think a bit more about this mystery—about who God is. Long before Jesus was born, we hear in the Bible of a man named Moses who asks God what he should say if someone should ask him for God's name. God says to Moses, “I AM who I AM.” This is a strange name, i

John 3.16-18 Listen to the Gospel and Reflection This Sunday is Trinity Sunday and our Church asks us to stop and think for a while about the mystery of who our God is. Because it is a mystery, we cannot solve it, but by thinking closely about who God is, we draw closer to the mystery and deeper into the love of God. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” These words of Jesus tell

Acts 2.1-11 Listen to the Gospel and Reflection This Sunday is a new feast. We celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit. We call this feast Pentecost, and the colour of the feast is red. Last Sunday, we heard about Jesus returning to God in heaven. Before he goes, he asks his disciples to go and make new disciples in all countries of the earth. How can they do this, if they do not speak all the languages of the earth? This Sunday we find out what happens next. When the day of

Acts 2.1-11 Listen to the Gospel and Reflection Last week, we heard about Jesus ascending into heaven to oversee the building of the Kingdom. We also heard that the Lord works with them to build it. We wondered how this could be. How can Jesus sit at the right hand of God, overseeing the work, and at the same time be with us? We are missing something. Something has to happen between Jesus ascending, and the beginning of the building of the Kingdom. This Sunday, we celebrate t

Acts 2.1-11 Listen to the Gospel and Reflection This Sunday is Pentecost, when we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit to the disciples and Mary in Jerusalem. We consider this day the birthday of the Church, because on this day, 3000 people are baptized and receive the Holy Spirit. The light of Jesus' Risen life begins to spread. Image by Holger Schué from Pixabay The account of Pentecost is filled with sound. there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it fill

Matthew 28.16-20 Listen to the Gospel and Reflection We know that after Jesus dies and rises to new life, never to die again, he spends forty days appearing to his disciples. They talk with him, eat with him, and spend time rejoicing with him that his Risen life will never end. After forty days, Jesus returns to his Father in heaven. We call this the Ascension into heaven. "Ascend" means to rise from a lower level to a higher level. Jesus has already risen from ordinary life

Matthew 28.16-20 Listen to the Gospel and Reflection On Ascension Sunday, or the Feast of the Ascension, we celebrate the moment in Jesus' Risen life—forty days after the Resurrection to the full life of God—when he returns to his Father in heaven. "Ascend" means to rise from a lower level to a higher level. It can also mean to take the throne. We often call Jesus the King—the King of kings—and we celebrate the day that he takes his place on the heavenly throne. Once, when a

Matthew 28.16-20 Listen to the Gospel and Reflection On Ascension Sunday, or the Feast of the Ascension, we celebrate the moment in Jesus' Risen life that we speak of in the Creed: "He ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty." Forty days after the Resurrection to the full life of God, Jesus returns to his Father in heaven. Frankly, this does not seem like the best of feasts. Imagine the disciples standing there on the mountain as Jesus

John 14.15-21 Listen to the Gospel and Reflection Last Sunday we listened to Jesus remind the disciples that the Good Shepherd goes ahead of his sheep. Jesus tells them that he will go ahead to prepare a place in his Father's house so that they can be together. He says these things because the disciples are upset. They do not want him to leave them. Jesus knows this, and he knows that they are still worried. In the Gospel for this Sunday, Jesus continues to reassure them--to

John 14.15-21 Listen to the Gospel and Reflection This Sunday's Gospel continues the discussion from last week that Jesus has with his disciples at the Last Supper. Before he dies and rises to new life, Jesus needs the disciples to understand that there is going to be a new way for them to be together. Jesus says, "I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever." An advocate is someone who stands up for someone else, who speaks in their p

John 14.15-21 Listen to the Gospel and Reflection The Gospel for this Sunday picks up where we left off last Sunday in the long conversation that Jesus has with his disciples at the Last Supper before he dies and rises to eternal life. Jesus reassures them that he will not leave them orphaned but will send the Holy Spirit to live in them so that they can make Jesus known to the world. Through them, the world can see Jesus, and the world can then receive the Spirit. Throughout