Break Open the Word

The Third Sunday of Easter, 30 April 2017 Acts 2:14a, 36-41 Psalm 116:1-3, 10-17 I Peter 1:17-23 Saint Luke 24:13-35 Background: Bread Wild grains soaked in water, mixed and mashed, then cooked on a hot stone became the touchstone for bread and the families and religious groups that gathered around it. The oldest oven that we know of is in Croatia, dated to some 6500 years ago. The mystery of bread is two-fold. It is literally the staff of life, providing proteins and starches for the human diet, and with the addition of other yeasts has provided liquid bread – beer. Alcohol as well has been used not only as a social lubricant, but as a religious food as well. We know bread from all the references in the Bible as to its use especially in the ceremonies surrounding the Passover, and for Christians in the Eucharist. Thus when Jesus goes home with the disciples at Emmaus, it is bread that is broken, and it is bread that reveals. First Reading: Acts 2:14a, 36-41 ...

The Second Sunday of Easter, 23 April 2017 Acts 2:14a, 22-32 Psalm 16 I Peter 20:19-31 Saint John 20:19-31 Background: Confession and Absolution Making comments on the practice of Penance, or Confession and Absolution as it is known in some churches, might seem odd as we enter the Sundays of Easter, but the Gospel reading for today suggests it as a brief topic of study. For those of you ordained as priests, or pastors, the Gospel suggests a practice that may have fallen into disuse in your parishes, or that is only practiced in a general way at each Eucharist. For those of you who are laity, the texts might suggest a contemplation of how or how not we have used this sacrament available to us. To discuss the approaches of the various churches with which you might be associated would be beyond what is possible here.   I shall leave it to you to think about the ministry of Penance, and how you make that available to others, as a priest, or how you make it avai...