23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C, RCL)

Let me cut to the chase, brothers and sisters. Is this what you think living in Christ looks like?

Jesus isn’t known for being on the winning side. His constant mantra is come and die.

I like that Jesus isn't actually what the disciples are looking for.

Jesus isn’t pitting himself against poor people. He’s one of them.

I came into the world cursed with the ability to see all sides of an issue.

We are God’s artifacts—beautiful, incomplete, and mysterious.

Deuteronomy 30:15–20; 1 Corinthians 3:1–9; Matthew 5:21–37

Our identities—gender and otherwise—are shaped by community and God.

Nine trans Christians tell their stories.

There had to be something more to Jesus.

In this week’s Gospel text, the piercing hyperbole about family and discipleship normally receives top billing homiletically. However, I am newly struck by Jesus’ words regarding building a tower.

I played competitive tennis as a teenager. At one point, a new player started working with my coach. He was a natural athlete—quick, agile, and well coordinated. I was impressed.

My coach was not. He said, “That kid will never be any good.”

For those who are uncomfortable with any suggestion that our future is in our own hands, this might be one of those weeks to abandon the assigned texts on theological grounds. (It is extra tempting given the occasion of “Rally Sunday.”) In Deuteronomy we hear that if we obey we shall live and be blessed, but if our heart turns away we shall perish. And then very directly, “Choose life so that you and your descendants may live.”

Really?

The doctrine of justification really occurs only in Romans and Galatians. But wherever you look in Paul's letters, you see him arguing and working for the unity of the church.

This is not a Sunday for soft-pedalling the gospel. Moses and Jesus portray the life of faith as a "yes" or a "no" to God with lives that obey or that disobey. It is little wonder that it is common to summarize Jesus' teachings in the Sermon on the Mount with one verse, the "Golden Rule" (Matthew 7:12).

Somewhere along the line, choosing to worship the God met in Jesus became a matter of life and death for me.