The Joshua Victor Theory

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. Serving as a religious leader comes with its own particular bag of temptations, as Jesus makes clear in today’s gospel reading. Temptations to pride and ego, towards seeking and often receiving honor and the praise of others, temptations to the abuse of power, and temptations to prop up an artificially perfect image of oneself—and therefore fall subject to the charge of hypocrisy. They are spiritually deadly temptations, as the teacher of God’s Word may be tempted to use the appearance of religion or holiness, to disguise their own sin. In a parallel passage in Matthew, Jesus confronts the scribes for not practicing as they preach. Jesus ends His warning to the scribes, by saying “ They will receive the greater condemnation.” Why the greater condemnation? Why are these temptations particular to religious leaders, myself of course, included? First of all, the greater condemnation owes ...

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. Today in our reading from 1 Peter, the phrase “good conscience” appears twice. Once it’s in the context of a Christian living out their faith in Jesus and doing good, while suffering persecution or opposition—yet being able to have a good conscience. The second time it’s about our appeal to God in baptism for a good conscience. Today we’re going to see what this Scripture tells us about the gift of a good conscience, and how to keep our conscience clear. Have you noticed nowadays how even non-religious people are very aware of guilt? It’s no surprise that they often try to deal with it in a variety of ways that are very different from the Christian answer to guilt—which in short, is forgiveness in Jesus Christ. But it shows that guilt is very troubling for people. Sometimes we perceive that it originates from inside us; while other times we blame others for imposing guilt on us (isn’...

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. In today’s Gospel in Matthew 21, the chief priests and elders raise the question of authority. They asked Jesus, “By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?” They were in a time and culture where authority commanded great power and respect, and the idea of “unauthorized activity” was a major source of contention. Questioning His authority, they wanted to silence Him unless He could justify His authority. Jesus’ teaching and other activities seemed to them to be “unauthorized”—without the proper authority. Our present culture comes from a quite opposite position as them, and we’re more inclined to be suspicious or distrusting of authority. We’re surrounded by messages and attitudes like “Question authority” or even “Question Everything.” Bumper stickers proudly declare “I do what I like”—implying “don’t expect any consideration from me.” Or T-shirts that read: “Get your laws off...