Lent

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The Foolish Wisdom of God

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"The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to those who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart. Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age?"

This is a rhetorical question Paul is asking today. If it had been a serious question, the answer could have been something like, look in the mirror, Paul. You are an excellent debater yourself. Many of Paul's arguments have withstood the test of time, afterall. Another serious answer to the question could have been

Click “Read More” to read or listen to Bingham’s entire sermon for the 3rd Sunday of Lent.

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Via Dolorosa Via Caritas

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Today is the second Sunday in Lent, 2021. Last year on this Sunday, I preached a sermon that talked about pilgrimage as a traditional Lenten practice. That was March first, and it was almost the last Sunday before we were all constrained to a level of solitude for which we were little prepared. I remember thinking, in the weeks after that sermon, that it would’ve been better to have preached on the way of the hermit as a Lenten practice. But we do our best, don’t we, given nobody can know the future. Anyway, I don’t know about you, but I feel as if the entire last year has been Lent. Maybe that’s not such a bad thing.

Click “Read More” to read or listen to Dr. Loren Crow’s entire sermon for the 2nd Sunday of Lent.

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Blessing in the Desert Wilderness

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This year we heard Mark’s version of the story. Mark’s version is much shorter and much sparser than Matthew or Luke’s versions. Sparse, like the desert that Jesus entered. It only takes Mark two verses to tell the story. Matthew and Luke take six times as long to tell the story. In Mark’s sparseness, some of the wonderful details that we know and love, like the content of those temptations, and the clever dialogue between Jesus and the devil are missing. And yet there are gifts in the sparseness, as well. Sometimes in all the detail we can miss the forest for the trees, as the old saying goes. One of the things that Mark’s telling obviously brings out is where this story takes place in the larger narrative. It allows us to see the forest more easily.

Click “Read More” to read or listen to Bingham’s entire sermon for the First Sunday of Lent.

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Maundy Thursday

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In many ways, tonight is one of the most difficult for me because it is this night that we engage in rituals and traditions that are the exact opposite of the physical distance we need to keep at this time. Maundy Thursday is a very physical night. We gather together in person to wash feet and to take, and eat, and drink. But we cannot do these very activities in a way that can keep us safe, to keep that social distance that we need at this time. So logistically it has been really challenging to think how can we authentically commemorate this evening in a way that maintains that necessary distance. This is also a night which brings so acutely the pain of that physical distance when we cannot do these things that require us to be too close to one another so we can be safe at this time.

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Holy Week Whiplash

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What a week this has been for the disciples as we just heard in those two Gospel readings. The week began on Sunday with such joy as Jesus triumphantly entered into Jerusalem on a donkey, with a crowd cheering him on, waving their palm branches and shouting out, “Hosannah, hosannah, hosannah!” And then, in the course of just a few short days, everything changed, everything shifted as Jesus now exited Jerusalem carrying his cross. And that crowd was now jeering him and shouting out, “Crucify him!”

Worship God in Spirit and in Truth

WHEW! What a week this has been. It seems like each day brought news that overwhelmed or overturned everything that we had understood the day before. It seemed that a decision that we made one day was overturned by the news coming out the next day. To the point that if felt like at the end of the week that the decision we were agonizing over on Monday seemed quaint or unimportant by the time Friday rolled around.

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