By John Jay Alvaro

• Seek and you shall... by John Jay Alvaro (1/15/2014)
  Second Sunday after the Epiphany Psalm 40:1-11, John 1:29-42 This week we will let Paul David Hewson (aka Bono) be our exegete. Bono, the frontman for the Dublin-based band U2, wrote two songs that intersect with today's lectionary passages. Our texts for this reflection will be Psalm 40 and John 1:29-42, and alongside the Biblical text will be "40 (How Long)" and "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" from U2. --------------------- First Psalm 40. This is one of those lovely/troubling imprecatory psalms. "Imprecatory" means "to curse or pray evil upon another," a definition which makes these passages difficult to preach. ...
• King/Fool by John Jay Alvaro (11/21/2013)
  Christ the King 2 Samuel 5:1-3 OR Jeremiah 23:1-6 Colossians 1:11-20 Luke 23:33-43 I spent three years and a lot of money at a good divinity school so I could fit theology into a system. I read a lot of books by dead white guys who tried to accomplish the same project. What is the system that makes sense of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus? This Sunday we recognize Christ as king. It is the end of the church year, bringing our story from Advent through Easter and all that ordinary time to a close. But there is nothing about the i...
• Treading Silently Near Tender Hearts by John Jay Alvaro (7/25/2013)
  Tenth Sunday after Pentecost Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time Hosea 1:2-10 OR Genesis 18:20-32 Colossians 2:6-15 Luke 11:1-13 When I was in college I read Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers, a modern retelling of the book of Hosea. I was terribly curious what all the fuss was about, and was rewarded 400+ pages later with an icky feeling. Either I was supposed to feel like a well-loved slut or this book smelled like kitsch religious patriarchy repackaged in 1850's stereotypes. It has been so many years that I almost forgot the b...
• "The regime...was just demolished...by...tears." by John Jay Alvaro (3/15/2013)
  Fifth Sunday of Lent Isaiah 43:16-21 Psalm 126 Philippians 3: 4-14 John 8: 1-11 Lent is a difficult season to live into. 40 days contemplating our frail and fragile condition, giving sadness and heaviness room to breathe. This is particularly true in a culture that values positivity like it were gold. Which leaves little room for tears. Crying is for girls, or babies, not for people who are trying to keep it all together. Yet this week's psalm is all weepy and emotional. The psalmist apparently has no regard for good manners or propriety. Psalm 126 reads li...
• Darkness and Light, and My Son’s Need to Know Where the Bad People Go by John Jay Alvaro (1/2/2013)
  Epiphany of the Lord Isaiah 60:1-6 Ephesians 3:1-12 Matthew 2:1-12 Dallas, my current hometown, is full of huge churches with important pastors. The church where I serve is tiny by comparison, and outside of our little baptist tradition (i.e. not SBC) no one knows or really cares what we are up to week to week. Fine by us, but it is a stark contrast to the giant religious groups flanking us on all sides. And these important pastors have been given access to thousands upon thousands of itching ears each week. They are the arbiters of right and wrong, light and dark, heaven and hell. So...
• Home is Often a Troubled Place by John Jay Alvaro (10/24/2012)
  Jeremiah 31:7-9 Jeremiah offers a compelling vision: the people together, a great company, coming home. But the picture is all wrong. They seem to be marching triumphantly like a military party coming back from war. They move along the banks of the water in plain sight. But this is no army. This is a bunch of worn down and broken nobodies. And they seem to know it. They walk back home through a curtain of tears. Forget those translations that say they come home with “tears of joy” (Jeremiah 31:9, CEB, NLT). The text does not say that. It simply says that they were weeping. The return home is imaged in sadness. They are anxious travelers. They are totally vulnerable. The women are having babies beside the streams. The blind folks are still i...
• Reading Around the text by John Jay Alvaro (8/15/2012)
  Twelfth Sunday After Pentecost Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time 1 Kings 2:10-12, 3:3-14 Ephesians 5:15-20 John 6: 51-58 The Lectionary is a mixed bag. No preacher wants to rely on the tyranny of the urgent to choose a text. No one wants to close their eyes, flip open the Bible and point a trembling finger to the page, praying that they do not land on Hebrews or Paul's words for women in worship. The Lectionary mitigates that risk, and a host of other dangerous tendencies, by laying out readings in coherent and thoughtful units. But sometimes the preacher must interro...