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Awareness of God?
2 Advent – December 10, 2023Mark 1:1-8 John the Baptist is best known as the forerunner of Jesus, the one who calls on people to prepare the way of the Lord’s coming. He is the messenger, the voice of one crying out in the wilderness. Forerunners are often unseen figures and unsung heroes. And their back stories are unknown. The details of their lives are underimagined or undervalued. They garner minimal attention, because they are forerunners—those who plow the…
Darkness and Light
1 Advent – December 3, 2023Mark 13:24-27 Happy New Year. Happy Advent. It is the beginning of the new church calendar year and isn’t it interesting that the new church year is roughly one month before the secular new year? There is a lot that rides on the turning from December 31 to January 1 — new resolutions, new starts, new beginnings. I suspect there is less consideration given to this move from the season of Pentecost to Advent.…
Risk
22 Pentecost – November 19, 2023Matthew 25:14-30 Our gospel reading this morning is often called the Parable of the Talents. The parable is about a wealthy man who goes away on a long journey. Before he departs, he distributes his property to three servants. It is a great deal of money. The first two servants put their money to work and double it. The third servant takes a different approach with his money, his one talent. He digs a…
The Life of a Dragonfly
24 Pentecost, Proper 27 – November 12, 2023 Matthew 25:1-13 This parable reminds me of dragonflies. I know that sounds odd, but are you aware of the life of a dragonfly? It may surprise you to know that dragonflies spend most of their lives underwater. Before they are born as the adult dragonflies we know and recognize, they spend anywhere from two months to five years and even more developing as larvae in the water. Only after this lengthy…
Saints Living Today?
All Saints’ Sunday – November 5, 2023 Matthew 5:1-12 Today we are celebrating All Saints’ Sunday. All Saints Day is actually part of what we call a Triduum. Triduum meaning a three-day observance. We have All Hallows Eve (otherwise known as Halloween), All Saints Day, followed by All Souls Day. This year that was Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday – October 31, November 1 and November 2. It is Hallowtide, but we usually condense it to a Sunday observance. But…
Shakers
22 Pentecost, Proper 25 – October 29, 2023 Matthew 22:34-46 The United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing was a large group of English Quakers that would come to be called Shakers. They were called Shakers because of their distinctive movement during worship. And the Shakers are also known for their style of furniture. The minimalist style of Shaker furniture is governed by the guiding principles of honesty, utility, and simplicity. Every item was designed to work well…
We Belong to God
21 Pentecost, Proper 24 – October 22, 2023 Matthew 22:15-22 So this morning, we are hearing about some of the Pharisees and Herodians plotting to entrap Jesus. They first use flattery and then ask him a question designed to make him look bad. The Pharisees of Jesus’s day saw the tribute tax as a heretical and antinationalist capitulation to a pagan emperor, while the Herodians viewed refusing to pay the tax as sedition. Jesus understands that answering either way…
Robed in Love
20 Pentecost, Proper 23 – October 15, 2023 Matthew 22:1-14 So, this morning we hear another uncomfortable parable from Jesus. And I needed to remind myself that parables were designed to make us uncomfortable. If we read them and find ourselves unprovoked, then we aren’t really seeing them. Jesus was no teller of cozy bedtime stories; his parables are designed to show us things we don’t really want to see. And this week’s parable of a wedding banquet gone…
Sorry Monsters
18 Pentecost, Proper 21 – October 1, 2023 Matthew 21:23-32 Let me start by giving you some context for our story this morning: Jesus has just spent the weekend entering Jerusalem on a stolen donkey, receiving the adoration of the crowds, cursing a fig tree, and slinging a whip around the temple to cleanse it of corruption. In other words, he has just spent the weekend making holy trouble, and the religious establishment is furious with him. They can’t…
That’s Not Fair!
17 Pentecost, Proper 20 – September 24, 2023 Matthew 20:1-16 Be honest. When you heard our gospel reading just now, did your heart leap for joy? Were you excited when you heard that the workers who’d toiled and slaved all day long in the hot sun were going to get the same day’s wages as those who’d worked only one hour? Probably not, huh? This is not a favorite parable. It goes against one of our most cherished values,…
Power of Forgiveness
16 Pentecost, Proper 19 – September 17, 2023 Matthew 18:21-35 “How many times do I need to forgive my brother or sister?” That’s the question which prompts the parable of the unmerciful servant that we hear today. This passage follows on last week’s reading, which Jesus concluded by assuring us that wherever two or three are gathered in his name, there he is, in our midst. And Peter,…..well he doesn’t allow us to linger in that moment. He knows…
We Need to Talk
15 Pentecost, Proper 18 – September 10, 2023 Matthew 18:15-20 “We need to talk.” How do you feel when someone says these four words to you? “We need to talk”. What happens in your body when you hear them? Most of the time, if another person approaches us with those words, they’re not saying they want to chat about the weather, or relive highlights from yesterday’s football game, or share the latest celebrity gossip. They’re saying, “Something is broken…