Sermons by Rev. Jason S. Glombicki (Page 48)

The reading from Mark picks up where we left off last Sunday. In last week’s reading, the disciples were fighting over who was the greatest. Then, Jesus took a child into his arms and reminded the disciples that welcoming the powerless, the dependent, and the vulnerable is what makes someone great. Today, Jesus still held that child in his arms and the conversation continued…

    Here we are, one final week in John’s gospel before going back to Mark. I am excited to switch back to Mark. I find that John’s gospel is more confusing and can easily be misunderstood. For example, a superficial reading of today’s gospel could easily support an argument that Christians are cannibals. But let’s be careful not to miss the forest for the trees. To better see the forest, it’s important for us to remember why John was written. That’s why you have an infographic in your bulletin from the good people over at The Bible Project.[1] In the top left, we can see the intention of the Gospel writer. The objective was to lead us to the belief that Jesus is the Messiah, and that by believing, we may have life in his name. So, all this talk about bread over the past few weeks was to help illume one of John’s main questions, namely “what does it mean to truly live?”…

  Here in the United States, we’re gearing up for the mid-term elections. As the election gets closer, I seem to notice more “smear” advertisements.  If you haven’t heard of smear, it is an effort to damage an individual or a group’s reputation. The purpose is to call into question one’s credibility with unverified rumors, distortions, half-truths, or lies. Yet, smear is not exclusive to elections. Even Western Christianity engaged in such abhorrent practices…