Today’s Gospel reading, John 12.20-36, tells an interesting story — a small story, really, but with big implications. In the aftermath of the triumphal entry into Jerusalem, some Greeks — likely ‘God-fearers’, a technical term at the time for Gentiles who were interested in Judaism but did not fully convert — come to the disciples … Continue reading Seeing Jesus: A Reflection for Tuesday of Holy Week, 2022
One of the geeky things I enjoy about the lectionary for Holy Week is that after all of the drama of Palm Sunday, on Monday we flash back a day or two, to a moment of peace between Jesus and his friends before he makes the final leg of his journey into Jerusalem. But in … Continue reading ‘Nice Things’: A Reflection for Monday of Holy Week, 2022
Every year at Passover, the Roman governor would travel up from the coastal capital at Caesarea Maritima (literally, ‘Caesar’s City by the Sea’) to Jerusalem. It was a symbolic reminder of Rome’s mastery as much as a practical reinforcement of local troops. And no wonder. It’s hard to imagine anything more unsettling for an occupying … Continue reading The Stones Would Cry Out: A Reflection for Palm Sunday 2022
Throughout this Lent, we’ve been digging into the depths of the human experience, exploring different ways Christians throughout history have responded to the Darkest Nights of their lives, and of their societies: illnesses, invasions, oppression, and social collapse. My hope for the series was that by hearing the voices of those who have had to … Continue reading Theology from Under the Rubble: Conclusions and Final Thoughts
This series, Theology from under the Rubble, has looked at faithful Christian responses to a wide range of crises, external and internal, personal and corporate. Today I’d like to look more specifically at the crisis of the Church, which has itself undergone that same range of external and internal, local and universal calamities. Internally, the … Continue reading The Paschal Mystery of the Church: Fr. Alexander Men and the End of the Soviet Empire
Matthew Root 