Faith & Politics Reflections

 NOW WE START – SUNDAY APRIL 27, 2025 John 20:19-31 “When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors were locked where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.”  20  After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.  21  Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”  22  When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.  23  If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” 24  But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came.  25  So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger in the mark of the nails and...

 SMALL THINGS – SUNDAY APRIL 20, 2025 Luke 24:1-12: “But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared.  2  They found the stone rolled away from the tomb,  3  but when they went in they did not find the body.  4  While they were perplexed about this, suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them.  5  The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here but has risen. 6  Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee,  7  that the Son of Man must be handed over to the hands of sinners and be crucified and on the third day rise again.”  8  Then they remembered his words,  9  and returning from the tomb they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest.  10  Now it was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of...

 STICKS AND STONES – SUNDAY APRIL 13, 2025 Luke 19:28-40:  “When Jesus had come near Bethphage and Bethany, at the place called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of the disciples,  30  saying, “Go into the village ahead of you, and as you enter it you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden. Untie it and bring it here.  31  If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ just say this, ‘The Lord needs it.’ ”  32  So those who were sent departed and found it as he had told them.  33  As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, “Why are you untying the colt?”  34  They said, “The Lord needs it.”  35  Then they brought it to Jesus, and after throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it.  36  As he rode along, people kept spreading their cloaks on the road.  37  Now as he was approaching the path down from the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples bega...

  FRAGRANCE – SUNDAY APRIL 6, 2025 John 12:1-8: “Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead.  2  There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those reclining with him.  3  Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’s feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.  4  But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said,  5  “Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?”  6  (He said this not because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it.)  7  Jesus said, “Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial.  8  You always have the poor with you, but you do not al...