ArchivesTag : Jeremiah Bartram
A feminist gospel
Now as they went on their way, he entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what he was saying. But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me.” But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.” Luke 10, 38-42, Gospel for Sunday, July 18.
Full StoryPeace, power and community
After this the Lord appointed seventy others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go. He said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. Go on your way. See, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves. Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals; and greet no one on the road. Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this house!’ And if anyone is there who shares in peace, your peace will rest on that person; but if not, it will return to you. Remain in the same house, eating and drinking whatever they provide, for the laborer deserves to be paid. Do not move about from house to house. Whenever you enter a town and its people welcome you, eat what is set before you; cure the sick who are there, and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ But whenever you enter a town and they do not welcome you, go out into its streets and say, ‘Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet, we wipe off in protest against you. Yet know this: the kingdom of God has come near.’ I tell you, on that day it will be more tolerable for Sodom than for that town.” ….The seventy returned with joy, saying, “Lord, in your name even the demons submit to us!” He said to them, “I watched Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightning. See, I have given you authority to tread on snakes and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing will hurt you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice at this, that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” Luke 10, 1-12; 17-20; reading for Sunday, July 4.
Full StoryA very gay story
One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee’s house and took his place at the table. And a woman in the city, who was a sinner, having learned that he was eating in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster jar of ointment. She stood behind him at his feet, weeping, and began to bathe his feet with her tears and to dry them with her hair. Then she continued kissing his feet and anointing them with the ointment. Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw it, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what kind of woman this is who is touching him – that she is a sinner.” So Jesus spoke up and said to him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” “Teacher,” he replied, “speak.” “A certain creditor had two debtors; one owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. When they could not pay, he canceled the debts for both of them. Now which of them will love him more?” Simon answered, “I suppose the one for whom he canceled the greater debt.” And Jesus said to him, “You have judged rightly.” Then turning toward the woman, he said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has bathed my feet with her tears and dried them with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not stopped kissing my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. Therefore, I tell you, her sins, which were many, have been forgiven; hence she has shown great love. But the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little.” Then he said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” But those who were at the table with him began to say among themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?” So he said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.” Luke 7, 36 – 50; reading for Sunday, June 13.
Full StoryGive us something to eat!
When the crowds found out about it, they followed him; and he welcomed them, and spoke to them about the kingdom of God, and healed those who needed to be cured. The day was drawing to a close, and the twelve came to him and said, “Send the crowd away, so that they may go into the surrounding villages and countryside, to lodge and get provisions; for we are here in a deserted place.” But he said to them, “You give them something to eat.” They said, “We have no more than five loaves and two fish – unless we are to go and buy food for all these people.” For there were about five thousand men. And he said to his disciples, “Make them sit down in groups of about fifty each.” They did so and made them all sit down. And taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke them, and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd. And all ate and were filled. What was left over was gathered up, twelve baskets of broken pieces. (Luke 9, 11-17; reading for Sunday, June 6, Feast of the Blessed Sacrament)
Full StoryFresh thoughts on Paul
In turning the church decisively toward the Gentiles, Paul created the need for the gospel accounts. A new and growing population of pagan adherents who knew nothing of law or prophets needed not just Christ, as incarnated in Paul by the Holy Spirit, but also the historical Jesus. They needed the stories; they needed to know who this man was, this man on whom their faith was based. Hence the demand for the gospels. And the interesting thing about the gospels is this: they can be assumed to go well beyond what Paul himself knew about the life and teachings of Jesus. So without knowing it, Paul created demand for information about the historical Jesus whom he himself hardly knew. Like all revolutionaries, he could not have known the consequences of his own revolution.
Full StoryWhat Paul didn’t know
We know more about Jesus than did Paul. He never quotes the sayings of Jesus, never refers to his miracles, never touches his teachings. It’s hard to imagine a pre-gospel world, in which the faith consisted of two fundamental truths: Jesus died, and Jesus is risen: only that. All Paul’s thought flows from that basic source: but does ours? To what degree are the teachings of Jesus different from Paul’s?
Full StoryArrival
I’d forgotten how beautiful this city is. And I’d forgotten how seductive the Moslem cultures of the Mediterranean are: the wild taxi rides (no seat belts), the tender stillness of those old streets as light fades from the sky, and a few boys still kick a soccer ball around despite the dusk and the muezzin makes the last call to prayer as a deeper silence falls on this usually cacophonous city. There’s a tenderness, a sweetness to this culture.
Full StoryThis reading is too radical for me
When he [Judas] had gone out, Jesus said, “now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once…. I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” John 13, 31-33a; 34-35; reading for Sunday, May 2.
Full StoryHoly Week Journal – 2
I tell those voices – and the Lord – that he made me this way, and he loves me this way, and that I have to be both faithful to my nature, which is sexual and gay, and to his path, this Holy Week: this week in which we all in our different ways try to accompany Jesus in his fear, his fidelity, his incredible loneliness, his need, his humiliation, his pain, his abandonment, his death agony.
Full StoryHoly Week Journal
Was I the only one who thought of the current child abuse scandal, and the mounting chorus of questions about Pope Benedict’s own implication in it, as we walked along? This is the man who has, by general agreement, put in place exemplary structures to safeguard children now – and yet he finds himself and his beloved church sullied by a widening series of ugly revelations from the past. This is the man whose dream is the revival of the church in Europe, and with it, Catholic European culture. Where is that vision now?
Full Story
