Julian DeShazier
August 8, Ordinary 19B (2 Samuel 18:5–9, 15, 31–33)
David, Absalom, and the dangers of “hanging between heaven and earth”
Money in our hearts (Luke 16:1-13; Amos 8:4-7)
Jesus has a zeal against the human willingness to turn wealth into an idol.
September 29, Ordinary 26C (Luke 16:19–31; Amos 6:1a, 4–7)
Conversion narratives raise a question: Why does it take so much to get there?
What makes Good Friday different?
On Good Friday we face conflicting urges, on multiple fronts.
On the one hand, I don't want to be one of the Christians who Gardner Taylor called "a Resurrection people, but not a Crucifixion people." I don't want to rescue Jesus from the cross--the weekly tendency of many preachers, and I think a poor interpretation of "bringing the good news." It is a reality: Jesus died.
The gravesite and the marathon
I have a friend who visits his mother's burial site each year on the anniversary of her death. When the day comes, the mood is always solemn and deeply reflective--and tremendously difficult for other people in his life. What they don't know is that this annual ritual is generative, corrective. It helps anchor my friend for the rest of the year.
I have another friend who almost never visits his parents' gravesite.
March 24, Maundy Thursday: Exodus 12:1-4, (5-10), 11-14; John 13:1-17, 31b-35
Slaughtering animals, washing feet—I can smell the rooms in both Exodus and John.