Scripture Readings for February 12, 2026

1 Kings 11:4-13, Psalm 106: 3-4, 35-37, 40, Mark 7: 24-30

          When you first read the Kings verses for today it can sound like what you expect of God and a disobedient Solomon. God is going to punish Solomon for not wholeheartedly following God’s rules. This is exactly how Jesus reacts in Mark’s Gospel when a Syro-Phoenician woman asks him to drive a devil out of her daughter. She’s not an Israelite therefore not his concern. Jesus is following the rules of his day. God is acting, well like you’d expect God to act when God’s rules aren’t obeyed.

          However, on second thought, I began to think something else is going on here. Scripture scholars like to talk about how Mark uses this story to demonstrate the woman’s acceptance that the Jew’s are the children of God and that there is also room for non-Jews in God’s mercy. What is clear is this woman knows that Jesus can save her child. She won’t accept his easy dismissal. She persists by accepting the degrading dog epithet with which Jesus has labeled her and uses that image to appeal for Jesus’ mercy. She accepts her powerless position, she recognizes the reality of her situation and repeats her request for help. Jesus now sees her for who she is, not a person of another nationality, but a mother fighting for her child and that is a relationship he can understand. This story is about making a new connection, a new relationship between two people that changes things for both of them.

          Interestingly, the story of Solomon’s bad behavior in Kings is also about a relationship. In this case, a relationship that is long standing one between Solomon’s father David and his God. Solomon has acquiesced to his many foreign wives and built temples to their gods and allowed his people to be led astray as a result. Therefore, God’s going to punish him. OK, that’s to be expected. Break the rules and you get punished. However, listen to what this God says as God is meting out his “wrath.”

I will deprive you of the kingdom and give it to your servant.
I will not do this during your lifetime, however,
for the sake of your father David;
it is your son whom I will deprive.
Nor will I take away the whole kingdom.
I will leave your son one tribe for the sake of my servant David
and of Jerusalem, which I have chosen.”

          God’s not going to take away the kingdom during Solomon’s lifetime and even then his son will get to keep one tribe. Why, because of the relationship God had with David and God’s choice of the Jewish people. Does this sound like a God who is all about enforcing rules? Isn’t it more like a father who is hurt by his children’s behavior and can’t bring himself to be too harsh because he loves them even though they screw up regularly.

          These two stories are about how a personal connection, a relationship between people, between a person and God changes us. Salvation isn’t about keeping all the rules it’s about having honest relationships that result in a better world. God’s not actually a judge out to fix us but rather a loving provider trying to give us a better way forward. Let’s try to be open to that.

Scripture Readings for February 9, 2026

1 Kings 8: 1-7, 9-13, Psalm 132: 6-10, Mark 6:53-56

I find these two readings very impressive. They are filled with excitement and celebration and joy.

In the reading from Kings all the various parts of the Hebrew nation are gathering to celebrate the new Temple that Solomon has just completed. Priests, ancestral leaders, tribes and all the people have come to Jerusalem and they are sacrificing sheep and oxen that are too many to count. Here is the Temple that David had wanted to build but Solomon has finally completed and everyone wants to be part of it. This is the place where God will reside. It says to every Jew, God is here in our midst. The God of the covenant, the God of the ark and their journey from Egypt is now here in Jerusalem their capital city. God resides with them, lives with them and therefore is available to them. To use the words of the New Testament, God is “at hand.”

This same flavor is present in the Gospel. Jesus arrives at Gennesaret and people recognize him at once. What’s more they don’t just keep it to themselves and crowd around to see or talk to him but they take off to bring other people who are sick to be near him. Wherever he goes, people who are hurting come to him for healing. People are brought on stretchers and laid out on the ground so they can touch his cloak. People are excited that he is now here and available and they come to seek healing. And Mark says, “All those who touched him were healed.” What could be more exciting than that? People were excited because the presence of Jesus meant they could be healed. Just as the Israelites were excited to have God present in their midst through the temple, these villagers had something to celebrate.

My question is, “Are we that excited?” Do we see the possibility of healing available to us in Jesus’ presence? We know that sometimes amazing miracles have happened when people’s physical sicknesses have been healed. But have we considered the healing that can take place by reaching out to Jesus with less obvious emotional or anxious needs. The key is reaching for Jesus, seeking to touch him. How often are we afraid to ask for God’s help or help from another person? Wouldn’t you think we would be a lot more excited if we believed Jesus could make a difference? Could we admit the truth of what frightens us to ourselves and share that in prayer? So what do we believe about Jesus and the presence of God being right here in our midst? It’s why we need to talk to each other about our faith and our experience of God because on our own we probably can’t be sure. But if someone came running up with a stretcher excited to take us to Jesus for healing, wouldn’t we go? Sometimes we just have to be taken by someone else. We need to hear another’s story. Perhaps once we have had the healing Jesus can give, we would be excited too?

Scripture Readings for Friday, February 6, 2026

Sirach 47: 2-11, Psalm 18: 31, 47, 50-51, Mark 6:14-29

Based on Biblical writing style, the story of John the Baptist’s beheading placed between the sending and return of Jesus’ disciples is meant to send the message that discipleship may well lead to a similar fate. For me the question is how does our first reading of King David with all his glorious achievements fit with the gruesome story of John’s beheading? Especially when the Psalm claims, “the LORD … is a shield to all who take refuge in him.” Clearly that didn’t work out so well for John the Baptist or Jesus, if you think about it.

The other element today is the feast of St. Paul Miki and companions. These were Japanese martyrs in the late 16^th century. They were caught up in the anti-Catholic uprising in Japan during that time.

I think Mark’s message is the important one. Discipleship, living as Jesus did, in the past could lead to losing one’s life in absolute concrete reality. That’s certainly what happened to the Japanese Jesuits, Franciscans and lay people who died because of their Christian faith. However, for most of us that’s probably not such an immediate probability or threat. What is the issue today?

Perhaps what is relevant is what is involved in discipleship in the first place. What ties the story of the Baptist with the story of David is the clear, steadfast commitment that made them who they were. It is what made this group Japanese men martyrs for their Christianity. In each case these people are living out of a conviction, a belief that holds the meaning of their lives. This is about following what you believe makes life worth living. A dedication for which you’ll risk everything. That I think is a relevant question for us today. Is there something we believe in that shapes how we decide to live. Let’s not make it about dying. Let’s consider what living is for.

My sense is our lives today are often overloaded with ambiguity. Although I’m not sure it ever was any different. Life probably has never been an array of clear black and white choices. The challenge is to seek out what I’m going to trust as true and then live accordingly. I think one of the biggest challenges to doing that is not framing the question but being willing to choose an answer. Too often it’s easier to avoid facing the issues that bother us. We turn away, say we need more information, or we’re simply afraid of what will happen if we take any step outside our current comfort zone.

David fits in here because he is the model of the ultimate free human being. In biblical times that meant he had to be a king so he could wield power and achieve success in everything he did. That’s what we’re told in today’s first reading. The story says however that this king was subject to Israel’s God and this king also could make mistakes and was forgiven by his God. This person who had total freedom to live as he wanted had an unrelenting commitment to God, to something outside himself.

Today we could find lots of things to warrant our commitment. Perhaps of all the Christian possibilities, it is good enough to recognize that these readings offer a view of a commitment to something outside of ourselves. Whether it’s David’s commitment to his God, St. Paul Miki’s commitment to spreading Christianity, John the Baptist’s commitment to preparing the way for Jesus or Jesus’ commitment to showing us what God looks like in this life, each made a choice and lived by it, no matter the consequences. The question is, what will we live for?

Scripture Readings for February 3, 2026

2 Samuel 18:9-10, 14b, 24-25a, 30 – 19:3, Psalm 86: 1-6, Mark 5: 21-43

It’s pretty common for us to think of God in terms of a parent and we as God’s children. The most obvious example of this is the nearly universal prayer, “Our Father …” Today’s readings give us three striking examples of the kind of deep parental love God has for us.

The background to the reading from Samuel is that the various tribes of Israel are in conflict. There is a power struggle and some have taken up arms against their King, David. This includes David’s son Absalom. David sends out his forces to do battle and as we see Absalom is killed in a humiliating way. David’s army has been successful but David has lost his son. Is David pleased that his army has been successful? Are there mixed feelings because his son was against him and has lost his life in the process? No, David totally ignores the army’s victory and the lives it cost to save his rule. For David there is only one reality, his son is dead. He would rather have died himself than have his son, the one who led a contingent of the opposition, die. Maybe that should inform our understanding of how God feels when we make poor choices. In New Testament terms, better he die on a cross than we should be lost.

This same kind of love gets told twice in Mark’s Gospel. First, Jairus a synagogue official, comes to Jesus because his daughter is close to death and he believes Jesus can heal her. Jesus without hesitation goes with him and when he arrives at the family’s home ignores what everyone is saying about the girl having died. He reassures Jairus that he doesn’t need to be afraid, just have faith. Faith, by the way, in this instance and all others should not be thought of as holding to a set of beliefs but rather as trust. Trust in another. It’s a relationship word, to have faith in God is to say, we trust God. That’s what’s going on here. Jairus must trust Jesus and he does. So Jesus takes mom, dad and his closest friends in to save Jairus’ daughter from death.

However, what is really important here is that Mark has split the story into two parts and sandwiched another story of faith in the middle, another story of trust. When Mark does that it’s a signal that the story in the middle is the most important because it conveys the deeper meaning for both events.

Now a woman who has sought healing for 12 years comes up behind Jesus, secretly touches his cloak and is healed. Jesus hasn’t said a word to her, didn’t do any of the things usually associated with healing like laying on of hands, and, in fact, didn’t even know she was there. Yet as Mark says, “Jesus, aware at once that power had gone out from him,” now wants to know who has been healed. He asks, “Who has touched my clothes?” He’s in a crowd, the Apostles can’t imagine how many people must have touched him. But the woman knows what he means. She is frightened because to touch someone in her condition is to make that person ritually unclean just as she has been for 12 long years. But she comes forward and tells the truth. She has trusted that just a touch, the slightest contact with Jesus would be healing, so she says, “It was me.” And Jesus acting just like a loving father confirms her trust, “Daughter, your faith has saved you.”

Here is the heart of the story. We don’t need special attention from God. We can be cast out from our loved ones, alone and frightened for years on end but if we trust that God, love and kindness, can heal us then we just need to step forward, reach out and tell the truth. God’s love goes beyond our injuries, failures and even opposition, to heal whatever is broken if we simply trust enough to reach out for help, to tell what is really going on.

Scripture Readings for January 29, 2026

2 Samuel 7:18-19, 24-29, Psalm 132: 1-2, 3-5, 11-14, Mark 4: 21-25

When I read Samuel for today I couldn’t help but think that David is the stand-in for all of us. David is amazed at the favor God has shown to him and his family. David doesn’t think there’s a good reason for God to have chosen him.

“Who am I, Lord GOD, and who are the members of my house, that you have brought me to this point?”

In fact, God has just told David his idea of building a fancy temple for God is missing the point of God’s being with him all this time. God has chosen David and will stand by him and his family forever. That’s it. Today we might say God’s going to be David’s friend. God will have David’s back, no matter what. Young people might say, BFF’s (best friends forever).

Why is God doing this? God wants this relationship and Samuel suggests it’s because God wants everyone in on the deal.

“Your name will be forever great, when men say, ‘The LORD of hosts is God of Israel,’”

This is even clearer in the New Jerusalem Bible translation:

“may the promise which you have made … stand firm forever as you have said, so that your name will be exalted forever and people will say, ‘Israel’s God is Yahweh Sabaoth.’”

It suggests that God wants everyone to know about the gifts or blessings God is making available. The problem, of course, is that life doesn’t always encourage us to see ourselves as beneficiaries of God’s largesse. We don’t feel worthy. Life can be challenging and often discouraging and harsh. There’s no simple answer to why bad things happen.

Mark’s Gospel for today hints at one way to approach the question of understanding the gifts we believe God offers to everyone. Jesus is saying in Mark that “the light” is not meant to be kept under a bushel basket but rather everything that is “hidden” is meant to be out in the open. Another words, pay attention, “listen” to what is being said, in the words and very life of Jesus and just as importantly, in our lives everyday.

Then Jesus says something that can seem odd:

“The measure with which you measure will be measured out to you, 
and still more will be given to you.
To the one who has, more will be given; 
from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.”

In terms of being chosen like David, God intends good things for everyone. We’re all just as worthy, unlikely as it may seem to us, as David was. Mark’s Gospel says to the extent you accept that and dive in, you’ll gain more of what is offered. If however, you don’t accept that approach then what little you already have is likely to go away. However we do have to understand what’s important. David thought building a strong cedar wood temple for God was what was needed. God said no, we’re not talking material things here, we’re talking a relationship in which God offers life and blessings to human beings and they respond in gratitude and act accordingly. That offer is available for ever and to everyone, we just have to listen well enough to hear it, to be aware of it.

We know about this from ordinary experience if we think about it. There are times when I feel overwhelmed by circumstances, too many things aren’t going right and I just want to curl up and avoid all human contact. If I keep up this behavior things only get worse. Then there are moments when I feel good about what is going on, the day is beautiful and I’m ready to take on anything. To me, that’s where we have to look for the presence of God and divine gifts, in our individual lives, in our feelings and the choices we make. I think today’s readings say that we are all chosen and promised a future in which God gifts us with what we need to flourish. We need to live based on that generosity and in so doing reveal the light that is still hidden.

Scripture Readings for July 11, 2025

Genesis 46:1-7, 28-30, Psalm 37:3-4, 18-19, 27-28, 39-40, Matthew 10:16-23

After sitting with these readings this week what strikes me is the consistent care and concern that God has for his people no matter where they go or what they do. The Genesis story tells of the Israelites being uprooted to go far from home so they can survive the famine. In Matthew’s Gospel Jesus is sending his disciples to places unknown.

Yet in both stories God is going to be there. In Genesis Jacob hears God say explicitly not to be afraid to go to Egypt because God will be with him. There is even the promise to bring them back. What more can you tell someone who is going away to comfort and encourage them but that they will return home safely. In Matthew, Jesus doesn’t say being a disciple is going to be easy. Rather he warns his disciples that they are going out among wolves. But no matter what happens God will tell them what to say and when they “endure to the end” they will be saved.

I also don’t think this is pie in the sky stuff. It is not a Pollyanna view of the world where people are simply reassured that everything will be “all right.” Jesus says disciples must be wise as serpents, simple as doves. He knows families will be divided and suffer from the loss. He doesn’t suggest they take on futile causes, so if one town rejects them they are to move to the next. And we know that once the Israelites go to Egypt not everything is going to work out well the whole time they are there. But we know that God does keep God’s promise, the Israelites, led by Moses, do return from Egypt to prosper as a nation.

It suggests to me that just because God is close to us and part of our lives, that doesn’t remove the difficulties or challenges or decisions that life presents. But it does say that if we are open to it. God will comfort us and care for us in ways that will surprise us and free us. I think it suggests exactly what the Psalm says, “The LORD watches over the lives of the wholehearted; their inheritance lasts forever. They are not put to shame in an evil time; in days of famine they have plenty.” God will help us be our best selves.

 Whether we have plenty right now or if we are starving in some way, what we need to do is look for the God who took Jacob to Egypt and brought him home. The God who brought Joseph, the son believed to be dead, back to see his father, so they could cry on each other’s shoulder. The God who saw his own son slaughtered on a cross but who seeks to provide our every need. This God, the Psalmist says delivers the just from the wicked and saves them, because they take refuge in him. Are we taking our refuge in God? Are we giving God the chance to act in our lives? Are we asking for help when we need it? Do we let others in to be a part of what we need? Are we there when others have the courage to ask for the help they need? We heard what the Psalmist said this morning, “Do good that you may abide forever, for the Lord loves what is right and does not forsake his faithful ones.” God and us we’re in this life together.