A Positively Poetic Priest

Part of the greatest joy and frustration in our lives is that certain aspects of it cannot be planned for, events never happen when you expect them. Expectations come up over and over again in the gospel story of Luke, usually with Jesus breaking other people's ideas of who he should be and what he should be doing. Indeed, listen to the stories he tells! The story in the passage for today from chapter 14, a man decides to share a great dinner with lots of people. He wants to share his abundance with others. He wants to share his joy with others, to share with them the substance of life, not only food, but community. Yet, his guests make excuses about showing up. They were not open to the unexpected in their lives and they turn down this open opportunity and invitation to participate in the man's joy. One says he has to tend to some land, another has some oxen to deal with, another has just gotten married. All important aspects of life, but all things which keep them from parti...

Have you ever been listening to a piece of music, enjoying the melody, flowing along with it... when all of a sudden the melody completely changed? (Play music https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moL4MkJ-aLk ) Many would describe the way the melody changes in Sir Edward Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1 as sudden. Most people would say that they know the song Pomp and Circumstance, but Sir Elgar actually wrote five different Marches with the same name. The No.1, which we heard, starts with large brass fanfare and a full string melody which includes the musical whip banging in the background before all of a sudden going into the much softer fluid grandeur of the what we all associate with Pomp and Circumstance. Perhaps you could hear the audience's surprise in the form of laughter when the melody suddenly changes. It was an unexpected turn of events.  We as Christians have gotten so used to the idea of waiting for Jesus to come. Every year we wait, spending Advent wai...