The House You're Building

        Orient Today’s reading is a transition section between the witness of John and the start of Jesus’s public ministry.  We will read two  calling stories  (a narrative where a prophet or disciple is called by God to begin a task, enter a vocation, or follow Jesus). [1]  In this section, Jesus begins to gather men around Him to become his disciples, who will eventually be his apostles, who receive the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, and serve as the foundation of the universal church by giving eyewitness testimony to His life.    Introduction Why do people follow Jesus?  Why did you follow Jesus?  In today’s reading we get a glimpse into a myriad of ways that we “leave our nets,” as these rough-necked fisherman did, and make learning from Jesus the new focus of our lives.  How did Jesus interact?  What did He ask of them and what does He ask of us today?    Opening Prayer Jesus, as I ...

Recently I just got back from a trip—my first time on an airplane in over a year!     Like many of my friends, we took for granted before the pandemic how easy it was to travel and it felt amazing to get away.     When you’ve been gone from home for a week or more, usually other than laundry, one of the first things you need to do is hit up the grocery store.     In my day-to-day I’m a “Clicklister.”     I order my groceries online and pick them up after work on Friday.     Working full time, I love the convenience of having someone retrieve my weekly list for me, saving me a longer trip.     Since I usually don’t go in the store, this trip took longer than usual. Things were moved in different places and I had a big list, being out of produce and pantry items I had let dwindle.  When my overfull cart was unloaded and the cashier had finally totaled up my purchase, she asked if I wanted to round-up to the nearest doll...