John 6:51-58 Dear Partner, I’ll confess that there are times as I read the upcoming texts and prepare this letter to you that I am temtped to think – as, I imagine, many people (and perhaps some in our pews) think – that the Bible has precious little to do with real life. This week was one of those weeks. I mean, here we are, stuck in the middle of this argument between Jesus and the crowd who was following him about bread from heaven and Jesus’ nearly unintelligible and rather grotesque assertions about eating his flesh and drinking his blood. Biblical scholars, I realize, can show that behind these verses a controversy rages...

John 6:35, 41-51 Dear Partner in Preaching, Once again I find that the crowd who follows Jesus speaks for us, or at least for me. St. John narrates that these people who have followed Jesus, regarded him as a teacher, and witnessed his miracles, also know him as one of their own. That is, they knew his parents and his brothers and sisters, they watched him play and learn his trade, grow up and eventually leave home. In other words, they know him, just like they know all the kids from their old neighborhood. And for this reason, you see – because he is just like them, because he is common –he can’t be all that special, and he...

John 6:24-35 Dear Partner in Preaching, How do you feel about surprises? I’ll be honest: I’m not wild about them. In fact, I’ve always been a bit leery of people who love surprises. Call me dull, but, for the most part, I like the predictable, the planned, the ordered. For surprises, good or bad, have this way of upsetting plans and catching you off guard, of making you feel all unsettled and unprepared and insecure. Now, don’t get me wrong, surprises in some areas of life are fine, even fun; but I still get rather nervous around people who love to surprise other people. Now, I know, I know, most people are well-intentioned when they...

John 6:1-21 Dear Partner in Preaching, For the next few weeks, as you undoubtedly know all too well, we are taking a break from Mark’s Gospel and foraying back into John. “Back” because of the amount of time we spent in John’s narrative in Lent and Easter. But now rather than jumping hither and yon through John’s story of Jesus, we’ll immerse ourselves for five weeks in just one chapter. A chapter rife with significance in John’s Gospel and in our own understanding of the sacraments. So rather than wonder how or why the lectionary makes this jump – a constant temptation for me, I must admit! – I’m simply going to suggest...

Dear Partner in Preaching, I am writing from a family cottage on the shores of Otsego Lake, in Cooperstown, NY, a place my family has come for more than a century. In this setting, and after a night’s sleep to the sound of gently lapping waves and anticipating a day of fun on the water with my kids, I’m inclined to write, as I did three years ago, on the importance of rest, of Sabbath, and of the role of the church to provide and encourage restorative rest. And, indeed, I am most grateful for this time of rest and recreation. Yet – perhaps precisely because I’ve had a few days rest after a pretty intense year – I will instead write...