February 6, 2005 At Saint Mark Church in Norman, OK

Isaiah 58:7-10 + 1 Corinthians 2:1-5 + Matthew 5:13-16

These are verses immediately following last week’s Gospel.

Having described the qualities that mark disciples of Jesus

with the Beatitudes, Matthew now has Jesus speak in direct

address to affirm with two power images what is expected of us. This is the vision of community that Jesus has for those who call themselves his own: Salt and Light.

The presence of either one is unmistakable: when there is light, you see it, when there is salt you taste it. If either is missing, you know it very quickly. And so it is with disciples of Jesus. when they are present, you know it, when they are absent it is obvious.

The whole point here is simply that discipleship is for the sake of others. Salt is not eaten alone, but enhances other flavors or preserves other foods. Light is not self-contained but makes other things visible. Disciples are not called for their own sake, but for the sake of others. Disciples are once and for all expected to stand up and be counted. We are reminded today by all the readings that our spirituality as followers of Christ is very material. It concerns bread, home, body, flesh, and engagement in the painful realities of human suffering and need. The faith we share is exercised in real, concrete, material ways. To use an old image, there are “corporal works of mercy” just as important as “spiritual works of mercy”. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, or you have forgotten them, you need to look them up. The “works of mercy” are the foot prints of people following Jesus.

At a most superficial level, there seems to be a curious contradiction between what we hear today and what we hear on Wednesday. One says: “Let your light shine.” The other says: “Don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.” The contradiction is only superficial, and it comes from glossing over who is being addressed. The second saying becomes an excuse for all sorts of selfish behavior, and after thirty-seven years as a priest, I’ve heard it all. That odd excuse for not coming to church or for not pledging in a drive or sharing in the support of the church with envelopes. Quoting the instruction of Jesus: “Go to your room and pray quietly”, or you should “not let your right hand know what the left is doing.” The fact that those instructions are being given to hypocrites who put on an artificial show seems to pass them right by.

To disciples of Jesus comes this vision of what we must be to walk together in the foot steps of Jesus. We are to be seen like a lamp on the stand, and we are to spice up and preserve things of this world. Today we are being called by the Archbishop to stand up and be counted, bear witness, and gratefully be good Stewards.

Listen first to his written words of encouragement, and then hear and heed his request for the sake of the church in western Oklahoma.

January 30, 2005 At Saint Mark Church in Norman, OK

Zephaniah 2:3; 3:12-13 + 1 Corinthians 1:26-31 + Matthew 5:1-12

For people familiar with Bible images and language,

this scene has layers of nuance and familiarity.

To a mountain Matthew takes us,

and our first thoughts should be of Moses ascending Sinai.

There covenant tradition was established

for a people who have been seeking, longing, and hoping

for freedom for unity, and for a future with God.

Their past is marked by a long search

that led them to many other and lesser gods.

Their life style has been marked

by infidelity, violence, stealing and murder.

On that mountain with Moses as guide,

they are called away from all of that and offered a covenant

with the God of Abraham who asks of them a great deal,

but offers them even more.

What happens in Mathew’s Gospel is a shadow of all

that happened before. Israel did not get it right.

The old covenant brought them far, but not far enough.

It brought them power, but they abused it.

It brought them prosperity, but they abused that as well.

It brought them identity, but they would trade that

for less than God had promised.

But it also brought them Jesus.

Like another Moses, up the mountain he goes.

There he unfolds the conditions of the new covenant,

one that will be sealed in his blood.

Like the commandments which expressed the old covenant,

the Word Jesus speaks unfolds the conditions and promises

of the new covenant, and that is where we go today.

These Beatitudes are not pious hopes of what shall be.

They are not glowing prophecies of some future bliss.

They are exclamations of what is.

And it is not for some future world postponed, either.

It is a state into which the Christian should already have entered. The Beatitudes are a proclamation of what it means to know Jesus. They speak of joy that comes from walking in the presence of Jesus; a joy that nothing in this world can take away. They proclaim the conditions in which people of the Covenant live. So let us review them.

POVERTY does not mean that being poor is a good thing.

It does mean that helplessness is at least for those who put their trust in God. These are people who know that things mean nothing and God means everything.

MOURNING goes with poverty suggesting that while it is right to be detached from things, it is not right to be detached from people. When things go well, it is possible to live on the surface of things and never go deep—shallow lives.

Suffering drives us to the deep things in life, and when accepted rightly, a new strength begins. Nothing bonds people together like the sharing of suffering and pain.

GENTLE The gentle bless our lives with kindness, compassion, and patience. It simply means they are filled with respect: for themselves and for others.

RIGHTEOUSNESS Goodness is the issue here, complete goodness not partial goodness, not self-justifying judgments about others, but a kind of balance and wholeness that brings one close to God.

MERCIFUL Get into the skin of another – inside their lives, that’s what makes mercy. This is what God has done for us in Jesus Christ. From that moment on, God knew what it was like to be human. Mercy springs from understanding what another experiences.

CLEAN OF HEART is the quality of simplicity – what you see is what you get, no agenda, no hidden motives, say what you mean, and mean what you say.

PEACE MAKERS are people who make this world a better place. They are not trouble makers, but rather, they are people in whose presence bitterness cannot live. They bridge the gulfs, heal the breaches and sweeten the bitterness. It is the work of God. To bring peace.

These are the conditions of the new covenant

expressed in Christian tradition.

Moses gave commandments. Jesus gave beatitudes.

While some fight and argue over displays of the commandments in public, the beatitudes go begging for attention.

The path Jesus provides for those who would follow him leads to the New Covenant and the conditions in which we shall live it:

Dependent upon God and nothing else,

Dependant upon people and not stuff

Gentle, Good, Merciful, Simple, and Peaceful.

This is the only way to live in covenant,

and the only way to follow Jesus

January 23, 2005 At Saint Mark Church in Norman, OK

Isaiah 8: 2-9, 9:3 + 1 Corinthians 1 1-33,17 + Matthew 4: 12-23

With Matthew as bridge, we stand between Christmas and Lent. With Matthew as our guide from now until next November, teach is more important than miracles. We shall hear more of what Jesus says than what he does. The narrative of Christ’s birth is closed now. John the Baptist has been killed, but his call to repentance has not been silenced. No sooner than Matthew announces his death, than he has Jesus take up the message himself. Matthew puts Jesus in Zebulun and Naphtali Capernaum, because that’s where the prophet said the Good News would first be heard.

It’s a place like Sayre, Oklahoma. We are not talking about prime real estate here, but the message is clear, no place is too far for the Lord, and no one is too little or of no value. This is a culture of tight family identity. Kinship matters and without it, one is lost. Matthew moves Jesus out of his family, away from “their town” and puts him in a new place where he begins today to form a new family.

And s, to a group of fishermen he comes. Fishermen: people who work hard. These are not men who have power, influence, or prestige. They are unschooled, tough, and they probably smell like dead fish.

They wait – have been waiting a long time. They wait for the fish: but more than that, they wait for the messiah. They are synagogue and prophet-schooled to look, expect, and wait for that messiah who will lead them from gloom and darkness to rejoicing and an abundant harvest. They wait for someone to life the burden and smash the rod of the taskmaster. And so, when he comes along with what power or mysterious appeal we know not, they follow.

Where he takes them however is not where they expect to go. As he puts out his map for the journey into the reign of God next week, we too are invited into the mystery of what it means and where it will lead. We are waiting too, just like the fishermen. We work, we know darkness and gloom, and we are no strangers to oppression terror and anguish.

There is a miracle here, but it takes some faith and some thought to see it. The miracle is that no matter how many times they had gone after another, no matter how often they tried something or someone else, those fishermen got it right that day. They found the one who would take them, the one who would fulfill their dreams and their hopes.

It is a miracle that can be repeated for us. Most of us have tried everything there is everything we could imagine , think of, find, or create. We try drugs, sex, fashion, and money. We try power, oppression, violence, and lately we try war that we try to soften by calling it preemptive. None of those things can ever or will ever bring us peace or joy. They will not bring us security or fulfill our dreams.

We look to politicians for the things that only come from the Messiah. Governments and ideologies do not make peace. Economic systems, materialism, and consumerism do not make us secure, justice does. It is Love not legal systems that brings peace.

The one who says: “Come, follow me.” Offers us the way to find what we have dreamed of since we awakened to sin. We can chase after all kinds of phony plans and systems, ideologies and leaders”, but only one can take us where we long to be. This broken, violent, hungry, and homeless world remains so not because the plan of Jesus has been found inadequate or wanting, but because it has not been given a a chance and put to use by people willing to put down everything and every old way and follow Him.

Perhaps the miracle can happen again, and we shall repent and turn from those old, failed ways and go with Jesus The way may not be exactly as we imagined, and it may not be easy. The presence of God’s reign is so radical and powerful that it calls men and women from the safety and security of everyday routines to a life of unheard-of-newness. For Peter, Andres, James, and Joh, it required a break with fishing and family to join Jesus in “fishing for other.” Following Jesus is not for the tentative and indecisive, maybe that’s why there are so few who take Him seriously. How it shall be for us remains to be seen, but it is clear that we are getting nowhere as it is.anuary 23,

December 26, 2004 Sirach 3:2-6,12-14 + Colossians 3:12-17 +Matthew2:13-15,19-23

A quick and easy reading of the Go$pel today in the context of this Feast might at first suggest that “family” is a matter of a mother, a father, and a son. Yet everyone of us knows real families that do not fit that model.In everyone of our families there is some exception to this image. My own family tells me that.My mother lived in an orphanage.My father left his fatherless home before he was 18.We live in an age when single-:parent families, blended families, and multi-generational families are just as common,as the traditional model we see in the Gospels. Many of us know households that have parents who have never married yet are raising children together. I have begun to suspect from the Gospels·that what-makes “family” is a matter of what happens, not who is there. There are certainly homes in which a mother and father live under the same roof as their children, but it would be a stretch to describe the relationship they share as ”family ” Parents who work around the clock, who bring their lap tops and cen phones to the soccer games and swim meets of their children have no connection with what I believe this Gospel suggests is a family After care programs, quick on-the-go meals, frenzied schedules that leave no time for conversations between mothers and daughters, fathers and sons, husbands and wives are not providing what this Gospel suggests family life is all about. The Gospels, especially Matthew and Luke suggest that a family is a relationship that listens to and responds to the message of God. For Joseph and Mary, that was a matter of dreams. Dreams in that age were commonly thought to be messages from God. For us, the message of God is found in the Gospel, and so “family” can well mean a relatiqnship formed around the Word of God. Luke suggests that family is created by relationships where growth in wisdom, knowledge, and favor before God take place. Remember how he describes what went on in Nazareth after Jesus was found in the temple. This is the issue for us today on this feast. Family is not simply a matter of who is there or who is not. It is a matter of relationships that are responsive to the Will of God and relationships where wisdom, knowledge and grace are nurtured and grow. This is what made that family in Nazareth Holy, and it is what can make any family Holy. The danger Joseph fled with his wife and the child was not just Herod. It was all that Herod stood for and Herod’s refusal of the “dream”, or the message and will of God. The danger we must flee is isolation, individualism, a consumer culture where time is a commodity scarce for the play and interaction that nurtures growth in wisdom, knowledge and favor before God. Holy is the place where these things happen. Holy is the people whose love, respect, honor, and commitment .provide the climate for these things. Holy is the family where dreams are remembered; and wisdom, knowledge, and grace abound. It does not matter in the end, who is there. What does matter is what happens.

December 25, 2004

We are part of the story being told through out the world today While we may tell the story in the past tense,we live it in the present.It is not just about shepherds and angels. It is about you and me.Those shepherds were not the only ones who hear good news in the night.They are not the only ones who get up from what they are doing and go seek the promised one, Christ the Savior, Immanuel.We have heard a message    the Gospel.We are up in the night, and have come here seeking what has been promised. The coming of our God continues, and God still uses the most simple and humble of ways to be with us. That birth in Bethlehem was a way of getting us to look and see. From all its humility and simplicity, we learn to look and see God’s presence not in riches and finery, not in power and palaces, but in the poverty of two homeless refugees and the helplessness of an infant. Christmas is the very beginning of God’s revelation to us, not the end.   Our assembly here continues the story being told and the revelation unfolding.The God who once came to Bethlehem in infant’s flesh and blood still comes to this place through bread and wine.Those who can see God in an infant and see God on this altar can discover God in all of life.The presence of God in the gi of the Eucharist is not an isolated event but the clue to how all of creation is to be seen.  The coming of our God continues, and God still uses the most simple and humble of ways to be with us. That birth in Bethlehem was a way of getting us to look and see. From all its humility and simplicity, we learn to look and see God’s presence not in riches and finery, not in power and palaces, but in the poverty of two homeless refugees and the helplessness of an infant. Christmas is the very beginning of God’s revelation to us, not the end.   So we have no need to go to Bethlehem to discover the Lord.Christ waits here and where ever there is human need and an opportunity for service.There Christ lives as if in a mangerThose who seek the spectacular will not notice.The real presence of Godis only revealed to those who know what Bethlehem is really all about. This Christ is not found only at Christmas.He is within reach at all times and seasonsfor those who can recognize God in the ordinary and the simple. To keep us from losing this vision because it is so common, Christmas happens once a year to remind us of how things are. So we come here tonight asking God for a new way of seeing things,and a new way of recognizing God in these times and in the things we do that are so ordinary, common, and every-daySince the simple humility of God   in – Christ is seen most clearly in the sacrifice of the cross,we come asking for the ability to recognize the humble presence of the Lord wherever we encounter suffering, pain, rejection, lonelin·ess and despair. While they are important as a way of showing our love, the best gift of Christmas is not found in brightly colored packages around a tree.There is a gift with no wrapper and no ribbon.It is a gift given to us all the ability to discover the divine in our lives and the willingness to offer ourselves to any of God’s daughters and sons who need help, encouragement, and strength.If these things seem too ordinary, too human, too simple, we have missed the message and the truth of Bethlehem.And so we have this day of reminder that comes once each year that our God is Emmanuel, “God With Us”He was not born in Rome or Jerusalem, but in an obscure village of Judea,and so His kingdom for us will not be found in Washington, in New York, or any of the seats of powerFor us it will be found in Norman, Oklahoma one house at a time. Emmanuel was not born in a patace with attending royal physicians.He is born again and again in ever human heartwhen forgiveness restores life to what has been broken or dead. This is the beginning of the feast of Life itself It is the first day of the new creation.It is the first hour when Light comes leaping into the darkness, and we have been awakened to the dawn of our salvation. The gifts we find as we awaken this Christmas are simple: bread, wine, and the work of human hands.If we can see God in a simple new-born baby, then we shall God in the gifts we bring to this altar. Come, let us adore.

December 12, 2004

Isaiah 35: 106, 10 + James 5: 7-10 + Matthew 11: 2-11

The old and the new come together today. The greatest prophet of the Old Testament and the greatest prophet of the New. The voice of the old way comes from a prison. The voice of the new is free. This Gospel story could have ended here, because the scholars tell us that its function was to introduce Jesus and get John out of the picture. But it doesn’t end because John is not the only one in prison. We are too.

Just like John we suspect, we hope, that the reign of God has begun. Yet we find ourselves in prison. Stuck and held back in our old ways. Violent ways, selfish ways, prejudiced ways, greedy, slow to forgive, impatient and intolerant, we are like this doubting John, whose expectations of a Messiah are not quite fulfilled by this man from Nazareth. He does not destroy our enemies. There is still sickness, blindness, cancer, infidelity, in justice, and power abused. Like John in prison, we are lonely, betrayed sometimes by the most loved, and we are filled with doubts about whether it is really worth it to be honest, to be truthful, to be faithful. The doubts of John in prison are not hard to understand. “Who’s side are you on?” He must have wondered.

To his question comes the most simple response: “What you see is what you get.” Then one of the deepest and most profound statements Jesus ever makes comes from the pen of Matthew revealing a great deal about the church that will receive this Gospel. “Happy is the one who does not find in me a stumbling block.” It is a starling verse implying that faith is not only a question of belief in the deeds of Christ, it is also an act of faith. It is a choice to believe in spite of some evidence to the contrary that God is with us, that God’s reign has begun, that we are not alone, left to ourselves, and without a vision of the future and the means to bring it into reality. The person who really stumbles is not the one stricken by doubts, but the one not taken with Jesus. Doubts do not destroy us. Indifference does and confusion about who Jesus is for us and what he can do with us.

Advent when lived through the life and eyes of John the Baptist means getting ready for what seems impossible and improbable. It is a season to be teased and tempted, a season that raises our curiosity, and invites us to see something that can change our lives. Our managed and measured rationality never lets God be God, never allows for the surprise of a baby born of a virgin, nor the possibility of mercy, love, tolerance, patience and forgiveness being better than revenge, punishment, and power.

The old and the new come together today. The old way of anger and vengeance meets the new way of mercy and love. John must have wondered why Jesus was eating with the very sinners he had cursed. He must have wondered how it would be possible to save sinners by chatting with them, smiling at them, and touching them. Our joy today springs from the news that the old has been replaced, that God has come to save us not condemn us, that God has come to love us not despise us, and that the Messiah for whom we long is far better than we could have imagined.

As citizens of the Kingdom of God, we are set free from our prisons by a Savior who does not do what we want but invites us to do what he  wants. His coming begins a season of life that will permit us to dance and sing and hope an serve and give and love: and “Happy is the one who does not find in me a stumbling block.”

December 8, 2004

Genesis 3:9-15,20 + Ephesians 1:3-6 + Luke 1:26-38

The news in today’s readings is not about the women: Eve or Mary It does not praise one nor blame the otherThe news is about God and God’s involvement in human salvation. If we stop with Mary on this feast, we miss the point.Notice that the Gospel is not about her Conception, but about Jesus. With that understanding, there are two important points of comparison between the reading from Luke and the reading from Genesis.They speak of God’s intimate relation with us.

The first issue we find common to both readings is fearAdam’s answer to God who asks: ‘Where are you?” is, “I was afraid.”The trust and intimacy enjoyed by God with creation has been replaced by fear The words of the messenger spoken to Mary are, “Do not be afraid.”With that announcement, the era of “fear” that comes from guilt has come to an end.

The second issue has to do with life.Adam names the women “Eve” It is a name linked to the Hebrew word for life, because “she is the mother of all the living.”Yet the consequence of their sin increases throughout the opening of Genesis with alienation, suffering, and death.These humans brought to life by the breath of God hide from God.The words of the messenger speak of birth and life.With that announcement, the era of “death” that comes from sin has come to an end.

Today we celebrate God’s gift of life, Christ’s conquest of death, and the first person to share completely in Christ’s gift, Mary Immaculate.That great gift is our hope for fullness of life in Christ. Now she is the mother of all the living.The Good News is the best possible news. Eve mourned in shame. Mary rejoiced.Eve bore in her heart the tears of all. Mary brought Joy to the earth.Eve gave birth to children of sin. Mary gave birth to the One who knew no sin.The mother of our race brought death upon the world. The Mother of the Lord brought life in abundance. Eve gave us death. Mary gives us life.Disobedience gave way to obedience. Unfaithfulness yields to faithfulness.

We may chose which mother we claim, and in doing so, we chose the family in which we shall live now and forever

December 5, 2004 Isaiah 11·1-10 + Romans 15:4-9 + Matthew 3:1-12

John, our guide in every Advent speaks to us today as more than the “herald” of Jesus.He does not rise up in our scriptures simply to point to Jesus and then disappear from history.He returns again and again each advent as the one after whom the church should model itself.And so in these first Sundays of this new year of grace and holiness,we take a look again at this one whose prophetic voice and prophetic vision is the model of what a prophetic church must become.Just as his voice prepared for the first appearance of Jesus, so must the voice of this church ready itself and then all humankind for the second and ultimate coming of Jesus. In more simple language,the agenda of John the Baptist is the agenda of our church:work for peace,struggle for justice and an enduring harmony among all people.

Our world is hardly any different from the world of Isaiah whose poetic and prophetic words we just heard.This is still a world marked by social injustice spiritual laxity,and poor leadership.His voice rose up at a time when the leaders and the people faced an enemy relying upon military might and the support of allies rather than fidelity to God. The consequences of their choice is a matter of history. The became divided among themselves and an easy prey to their foes.

The danger for them is the same danger we face.That danger is spiritualizing the reality of the Kingdom of God.At the root of the Incarnation -At the bottom of what God does by becoming one of us -is making real, historical, concrete, temporal, and earthly the Kingdom of God. It is not for some other age or some place or condition called: “heaven.”In order for the peaceable Kingdom to become the possible kingdom, it must be political as well as spiritual.And I do not mean political in the sense of Democrats and Republicans. I mean it must happen here on earth. We are the ones who will make peace, and we will do it by faithfully living the will of God. We are the creators of our own demise bringing on most of our problems. If we could just stop and ask ourselves what we could do for our Creator rathar than what our Creator can do for us, we might find ourselves following a much different path than the one we have previously chosen.

Our life together as church is not about what we can get here, or whether it is fun, entertaining, or “interesting” for that matter.Our life together as a church is about what and how we give and do for God.Yet this age all about pleasure, entertainment, and “ME.” And so this church rises up, looking a little “out of it”like a man dressed in camel’s hair eating locusts and wild honey. What we do is not about feeling good or being happy.It is about pleasing God.

Again and again, the prophets and Jesus tell us that Justice pleases God. And so, little works of charity that make us feel good are off the mark.They are short term repairs when there is need for long term solutions because we like instant things that feel good and look good.An example: Why are we ringing bells in front of stores every year? Because, we didn’t fix the problem the year before.Now my example is not an excuse for silencing the bells, it is a prophetic challenge to do something that gets usto the day and the season when it will not be necessary to ring them.If we did nothing all year to address and challenge a system of injustice, then we’ll be ringing those bells forever pretending that there will be no poor people in heaven. That heaven will never come. It was never promised us.Charity is something that happens out of our surplus. It is demanded of us. Justice, and the demands of justice come from an obligation to share God’s creation more generously even if it means tapping our very sustenance when the needs of others so require.

So, here he is again. John, the model of the prophetic church.And here is Advent again, the time to remember and the opportunity to get it right. If what we hear from Isaiah is the Word of the Lord, and you said so at the end, then the Will of God is that the dream Isaiah possessed is our to possess,and the wolf can become the guest of the lamb.

Before we walk into this holy place in another week,we should have made that day more possible and more certain, because the Kingdom of God is at hand.

November 28, 2004
Isaiah 21: 1-5 + Romans 13: 11-14 + Matthew 24: 37-44

Jesus stands with his disciples on the Mount of Olives. It is not a
“mountain” by our measure.It is just a hill that rises up out of the Kedron Valley To the west is the hill upon which Jerusalem is built. It is not as far as from here to Robinson Street.

In fact the distance is made greater because the road twists and turns as it goes down and up. You can hear the noise of the city from the Mount of Olives. There Jesus sees the Temple in all its grandeur and power, and he makes his prophecy. It was really more of an educated guess thana real surprisingly new idea about the future. The country was occupied by a hostile military power, and there was opposition and resistance that ran deep with resentment. His prophecy was not, at an historical level very profound; but it was not a political and historical prophecy. It was a prophecy rich in revealed truth and said more about God than about God than about a building, more about the distant future than about what would happen in less than twenty years. What was prophesy in the lifetime of Jesus was history by the time Matthew wrote this Gospel.

Matthew writes with hindsight about the Temple. He knows that the resurrection, not the crucifixion, is the summit and climax of the life of Jesus. He writes to Hebrew/Christian about this Temple to stir their visions and their hope of what is to come and propose an identity for this community of faith. They lived day in and day out asking one question: “When will Jesus come again?” Matthew, with the words and voice of Jesus gives them an answer. He tells them that no one will know, and therefore they shape and live their lives in anticipation and expectation with insight, foresight, and insight.

With foresight we see in the present the future we are building. We care and plan for our children. We look ahead to vacations and holidays. We save. We work. We build. We love. We support. These things turn our days and years into life. A look at these things gives us the skill or the power to prophesy about our future, because what we are doing these days is what we shall have left in the future when there are no more days If it’s all about getting more stuff or paying for the stuff in the future, then we will be doing that in the future; just getting more and still paying. If it’s all about looking good and being liked, then we’ll only “Look” good when time stands still, and that’s what I always hear people say when they look down at a body in a coffin: “Doesn’t he look good?”

With hindsight we change the future. We learn by experience. We see where things went wrong. We see wasted time and wasted people, and hindsight can help us to see in the past what we do not want to see in our future.

With insight we value the present, the moment in which we live, and recognize that what we have is pregnant with future potential. We know that now is the time to feed the hungry, that now is the time for forgive those we love and have hurt, and that now is the time to say “I love you” or “I’m proud of you”.
Matthew calls us to hindsight, for foresight, and insight. He offers us the hindsight of the words and deeds of Jesus Christ, and the response of the people of his time. He offers us the foresight of the resurrection and a vision of the Kingdom we shall unfold in the year to come. He offers us the insight that we are a new Temple, the living stones of a new community of faith.

Jesus looks forward

Matthew looks back

We must look within.