Eight Sunday after Pentecost – Exodus 20.8-11; John 14.25-27; The Peace We Need Is Given – I recently celebrated my 68th birthday. As I got to see my grandchildren on that occasion, it occurred to me that one of the many things grandparents and grandchildren share is their delight in birthdays, albeit for different reasons – grandchildren…
Fifth Sunday of Easter – Genesis 2.4-9, 15-17, Psalm 8; Love Your Mother – It is sometimes said that the mother is the child’s first god. There is truth in those words. The mother, most often, grows, nourishes, warms, comforts, embraces, encourages, delights in her child. And the child is so enfolded by that love that,…
Fifth Sunday in Lent; Daniel 9:3-10; Mark 1:9-15 – How we are doing in this holy season of Lent, now that we’re more than half way through? Perhaps not a bad time to pause and ask ourselves, “How’s it going?”, it being the spiritual and moral spring cleaning appropriate to the season.
Third Sunday after Epiphany; Matthew 12:9-23; 1 Chronicles 11:15-19 – Our nation has inaugurated a new president. The peaceful transfer of power – no small matter in this widely unsettled world – has been achieved yet again, keeping our 241 year run intact. And for this, we should all be deeply thankful. And yet, significant divisions remain among the citizenry. Some citizens are elated; others anxious. Some dismiss ongoing chaotic rhetoric as just words; others are fearful those words may become policy.
21st Sunday after Pentecost; Mark 12:41-44; Luke 10:25-37 – It would be easy to romanticize this poor widow whom Jesus so heartily commends. It would be easy to see her poorly dressed, slipping up to something like the Salvation Army collection bucket at Christmas and plopping in her last two cents as we bystanders wait and watch, hoping for a happy ending like an O. Henry short story were she ends up being befriended and loved and provided for, happily ever after. It would be easy. And it would be wrong.