Christ Church Jerusalem

The Levites are a unique group within the children of Israel. They are a 13th tribe not allotted any territory and yet chosen to render eternal priestly service on behalf of their brethren. Ezekiel, Isaiah, and other prophets all envision the Levites persisting even into the New Creation and maintaining their unique identity in it. Who are they to us today?

Holiness is not built by good behaviors, but itself characterizes those who obey God's commands. Holiness, then, is not bought with righteous behavior; but without righteous behavior, there is no evidence of holiness, even where there should be. This is what Ezekiel sees and condemns.

The Ascension of our Lord is not an act of abandonment, but of commission. In John's Gospel, we are told that only after Christ's Ascension can we receive His promised Holy Spirit, Who empowers us to live out the calling he gave us. "Just as the Father sent me," Jesus says, "so I am sending you." May we ever seek to find Him present among us in Spirit, until the day we will see Him

Many people, even some Christians, think that the Old Testament is only about Law and the New Testament is Love. But the ancient revelation was not changed by Jesus or Paul, although our ignorance of the Hebrew Bible, and perhaps even some anti-Semitism prevents us from seeing the connection. God’s election of the people of Israel was an unmerited act of grace and love, and only

Ezekiel is doubtless one of the harshest books of scripture, and this week's Haftara pairs with one of the harshest rituals in Torah: the double-sacrifice of a live goat and a scapegoat. This sacrifice on the Day of Atonement cleanses the people of both ritual and moral impurities. In it, we see the ancient connection between obedience and life; we also see the connection between d

From the Fifth Sunday of Easter, this sermon draws parallels between Deuteronomy 4:32-40, John 15:1-8, and 1 John 4:7-21, emphasizing the profound significance of history and love in the context of faith in action–or faithfulness. Through Moses's words, listeners are urged to reflect on the unparalleled actions of God throughout history, contrasting His active involvement with th

At the very heart of the gospel is the story of Passover: that final night in Egypt when God completed His judgments against the rebellious Pharaoh and called His own people out into freedom. We often think of Christ's death through the lens of atonement for sins, but its coinciding with Passover tells us something else about the gospel–namely, that we are shielded from wrath and

The image of shepherds and shepherding in the biblical text stands in sharp contrast to the romantic pictures of fat sheep on luxuriant, green hillsides that we see in popular Christian culture. The biblical image, best reflected in Psalm 23, is set in the dangerous Judean wilderness with wild animals, “the valley of the shadow of death”; sporadic grass and rain which (even tod

Our current age, like all others that came before, is one full of trauma and death. And though both are such common realities, neither of them feel "normal" to us. They can render us illogical and reveal significant gaps in our faith. We see this well in the story of Thomas. The same Thomas who had claimed readiness to die with Jesus (John 11:16) would later reject that Jesus had b

Of the four Gospel accounts of Jesus' Resurrection, Mark's is the most shocking. His "shorter ending" (Mark 16:1-8) does not end in an appearance of the risen Jesus, but only a proclamation of His Resurrection to the faithful women who went to his tomb. Still, their initial act is to withhold this message out of fear and confusion. Throughout Mark's gospel the reader is being calle