A little on Luke, a little on Isaiah, a little from both of them on John the Baptist. Audio here.
Father Talks Too Fast
Sunday, December 8, 2024
Sunday, December 1, 2024
Inaccuracies about the "Two Comings of Jesus" Framework
Monday, November 18, 2024
Last Two Sundays' Homilies
Here's two weeks worth of Sunday homilies. I've switch away from Internet Archive and its embedded players, at least for now. Sorry about that; maybe I can find a format with more controls like skips and playback speed. (Let me know if you've got suggestions.) I'm going to start going backward now and repairing or re-hosting previous audio on here.
Homily for 11/10/24, 32nd Sunday, Year B: Letter to the Hebrews and Temple Worship
Homily for 11/17/24, 33rd Sunday, Year B: Gems in Eucharistic Prayer IV
Monday, September 30, 2024
"Would That All The People Were Prophets" and Prop 434
Sunday's homily. First part about the readings and the second part about the multiple propositions on the Nebraska ballot this November.
Sunday, September 15, 2024
The Servant Songs Anchor the Gospel
It can be confusing for people when they hear that 1) the Jews were expecting their Messiah to be a second King David, a glorious, nation-saving warrior, and so they looked for those things in Jesus, but also that 2) this captured-and-crucified Jesus is the Messiah, the long-promised savior, fulfilling all the Old Testament prophecies. These two ideas together seem to say that either the Jews didn't read their own books, or that the early Church had to fudge on what the Scriptures said and wrench the prophecies to fit Jesus' very-non-warlord career and the fact that he died.
And yes, there is tension between these two Old Testament images of a "savior messiah." And, yes, the Resurrection does serve as kind of God's final stamp that Jesus and the Church got the scriptural blueprint right. But really, the images of "great king who saves Israel and reigns gloriously" and of "suffering servant who saves us by bearing our punishments" are both in the texts and were ultimately true. The common perception in 1st century Judea seem to be simply that those were two separate personages: the hero-king and the exemplar-martyr. And frankly, that's not crazy, since the four Servant Songs of Isaiah never say the Servant is a king or the messiah. Many seem to have seen the Servant as "Israel, who has suffered so much," though that does leave the "suffered for us" part from Isaiah 53 unclear.
From the first days of the Church though, they read it the other way: Jesus came to live the Servant role the whole way—"not rebelling, not turning back"—as Israel never quite could. He suffered, and his sufferings made us whole. But, as those Servant Songs (and Psalms 16, 30, and 116) all assured, God would not abandon the Servant to the grave; He would uphold and rescue the him and the Servant would reign gloriously forever. It wasn't that the earliest Christians were stretching the prophecies, in fact they took them even more literally. It was just that no one before the Resurrection could conceive that "freed my soul from death" and "will not leave me in Sheol, nor let me see decay" could be read as more than a metaphor for "protected me and saved me." Nor could one imagine "will rule on high forever" meant more than "a long reign, with sons to carry on the dynasty for ages." Well, at least till Easter Sunday.
Sunday, September 1, 2024
Jesus and Neusner: Just An Insightful Rabbi, or More?
This might not be the smoothest of deliveries, but it had more structure and hopefully avoid a potential place of confusion. To be clear: I love Jacob Neusner and I think A Rabbi Speaks With Jesus is a true monument and milestone in Jewish-Christian dialogue. And ultimately, his critiques make sense and it's reasonable that Neusner doesn't find Jesus compelling. Which is just fine... because the Christian argument was never where Jesus as a rabbi can convince you to rethink things. It's whether God raising Jesus from the dead is enough reason to trust what Jesus is telling you to rethink.
Friday, August 30, 2024
OCIA (RCIA?) Classes' Drop Page. Not Homilies
These are here right now while I try to figure out how to get them up on the parish website or something better. But until then, this is my drop spot.
This page will grow as weeks go on; no need to hop to a different one. All class audio will just be on this one page. Cheers!