Sermons by Rev. Jason S. Glombicki (Page 41)

    Here we are, one final week in John’s gospel before going back to Mark. I am excited to switch back to Mark. I find that John’s gospel is more confusing and can easily be misunderstood. For example, a superficial reading of today’s gospel could easily support an argument that Christians are cannibals. But let’s be careful not to miss the forest for the trees. To better see the forest, it’s important for us to remember why John was written. That’s why you have an infographic in your bulletin from the good people over at The Bible Project.[1] In the top left, we can see the intention of the Gospel writer. The objective was to lead us to the belief that Jesus is the Messiah, and that by believing, we may have life in his name. So, all this talk about bread over the past few weeks was to help illume one of John’s main questions, namely “what does it mean to truly live?”…

  Here in the United States, we’re gearing up for the mid-term elections. As the election gets closer, I seem to notice more “smear” advertisements.  If you haven’t heard of smear, it is an effort to damage an individual or a group’s reputation. The purpose is to call into question one’s credibility with unverified rumors, distortions, half-truths, or lies. Yet, smear is not exclusive to elections. Even Western Christianity engaged in such abhorrent practices…

In today’s gospel reading, Jesus met three people – Jairus, an unnamed woman, and a young girl. The theologian David Lose notes that each one is utterly different but so very similar. Jairus was a local Synagogue leader who, by his position, status, and gender, had power, prestige, and comfort. At the opposite end of the socio-economic spectrum was an unnamed woman living with a chronic illness. Not only was she labeled “unclean,” which robbed her from both physical touch and entrance to the temple, but in her pain, she was a victim of predatory physicians taking money and giving nothing. Then, there was Jairus’s daughter who was barely alive with no power, no rights, and no say in what would happen to her…