by jakeowensby | Oct 6, 2023 | Matthew 22:1-14
Julius Henry Marx was born in a room above a butcher shop on the Upper East Side of Manhattan on October 2, 1890. You may know him as the late Groucho Marx. On stage and screen, Groucho wore a greasepaint mustache and eyebrows, glasses, and a cigar, and adopted an...
by jakeowensby | Jun 15, 2018 | Ecclesiastes
Nothing makes sense. That’s how I read the author of Ecclesiastes when he says, “Vanity of vanities. All is vanity.” Repeatedly. Maybe you’re a superstar in your chosen career. You’ve got a house in every state and the size of your stock portfolio makes Bill Gates...
by jakeowensby | Oct 20, 2017 | Matthew 22:15-22, Proper 24 A
Some Christians are making political commitments that Jesus would hesitate to call, well, Christian. Let me explain by way of a political run-in that Jesus had with a group called the Herodians and some Pharisees. We don’t know much about the Herodians. Their name...
by jakeowensby | Sep 2, 2017 | Exodus 3:1-15, Proper 17A
The story of the burning bush is our call narrative. Yours and mine. It is our call to be part of the resistance. This might take a little explanation. Moses was tending sheep. Not his sheep. His father-in-law’s sheep. Moses was neither rich nor powerful. Adopted as...
by jakeowensby | Jul 26, 2017 | Matthew 13:34-52, Proper 12 A
“I’m trying to leave something behind.” This hook from Sean Rowe’s song “To Leave Something Behind” has lodged itself in my heart and in my theological imagination lately. These words crystallize a yearning that shapes my life, at least on my best days. Wanting...
