August 11, 2019 - Proper 14C

Lectionary Readings

O God, help us to treasure the gift of your Kingdom ☩ in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

            Over the past couple of Sundays, our Gospel texts have been Jesus’ teaching about the Kingdom of God. One of the refrains that I’ve been repeating is that the Kingdom is not a place, it is a reality in which the love of God rules our lives. And because the Kingdom is an event and not a place, it means that the Kingdom can and does intersect with every aspect of our lives. With Jesus’ teaching this morning in mind, we see that the Kingdom transforms our priorities.

August 4, 2019 - Proper 13C

Lectionary Readings

O God, teach how to be rich towards you in all things ☩ in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

            Last Sunday, with the Lord’s Prayer as the Scriptural foundation, we considered the radicality and challenge of praying “thy Kingdom come.” For the next several Sundays, the Gospel texts will all have stories of Jesus speaking about the Kingdom through parables that show us what living in the Kingdom of God is all about.

July 28, 2019 - Proper 12C

Lectionary Readings

O God, forgive the sins of the preacher, for they are many; that people will hear only of your grace ☩ in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

            “Your kingdom come.” We pray those words perhaps more than any others. Weddings, funerals, hospital visits, public liturgies, and individual devotions all have the Lord’s Prayer at the center, and at the heart of that prayer is the petition “thy kingdom come.” It’s a rather simple prayer in that it’s only three words – your kingdom come – but it’s an incredibly subversive, comforting, and challenging prayer. To pray those three words with the fullness of our soul is the work of a lifetime.

July 21, 2019 - Proper 11C

Lectionary Readings

In the name of God ☩ Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

            Earlier this month, while on vacation in Atlanta we went to watch a Marlins’ baseball game. Now, I’m a huge baseball fan, and so though this was the first Major League game that our children had been to, they’ve seen baseball on television at home plenty of times. After a few innings, Ellie mentioned how neat it was to be able to see the entire field of play, not just one little part of it that the television camera captures. And she’s right, part of the beauty of going to a baseball game is that you can watch the fielders position themselves prior to the pitch, you can look to see which fan caught the foul ball, and you can watch both the runner rounding first and the outfielder preparing to throw the ball to second. When you’re at the baseball game, you can see the entire landscape of the game and not just one slice of it as you would on tv; and this vantage point allows us to see connections and appreciate the beauty of the game in a fuller way.

July 14, 2019 - Proper 10C

Lectionary Readings

O Merciful One, teach us what it means to see mercy ☩ in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

            Shakespeare wrote in Romeo and Juliet that “A rose by any other name would smell just as sweet.” While that logic makes sense on one level, it also completely underestimates the power of language. Names matter; and we run into that when we consider the parable in today’s Gospel passage from Luke.

June 30, 2019 - Proper 8C

Lectionary Readings

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be always acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer ☩ in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

            This morning, I want to present the other side of the coin. Last Sunday, we heard St. Paul say in Galatians that “We are no longer subject to a disciplinarian, for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith.” I used that verse to offer a reflection on God’s amazing grace and said that the point of the Gospel is not to get people to accept Jesus, rather it is to get people to trust that Jesus has already accepted them. This means that faith isn’t about what we have to do because we don’t have to do anything – instead of earning our salvation, we are to enjoy it. And all of that is absolutely true; I’d stake my life on it.

June 23, 2019 - Proper 7C

Lectionary Readings

O Lord, forgive the sins of the preacher, for they are many; that people will hear only of your love and grace in these words. Amen.

            We’ve finally arrived at summer. I realize that school has been out for weeks and that the first sunburns of the season have already healed up, but it’s finally liturgical summer. This year, Easter was fairly late, so that pushed back the dates of Pentecost and Trinity Sundays, and so we have now finally, in late June, arrived at what is sometimes called “Ordinary Time” or “the Season after Pentecost.”