October 26, 2014 - Proper 25A

Lectionary Readings (note that the Gospel expanded to include the previous Sunday's text)

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

            I don’t know about you all, but I’m looking forward to November 5- the day after the election. We don’t have cable and don’t watch much tv, but still, it’s easy to be tired of the name calling and the bickering. There is so much conflict right now in our government, wouldn’t it be nice if our Scripture readings from today let us focus on something else? But it’s nearly impossible to hear this story about people questioning Jesus on taxes to the Emperor without pondering the proper role of government in our lives as Christians.

October 19, 2014 - Feast of St. Luke

Lectionary Readings

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

            Today we celebrate the Feast of our patron, Saint Luke. Whenever we remember a writer of a Biblical text, I like to point out the passages that are unique to their writings, so that we can fully appreciate their contributions to our faith and understanding of Jesus.

October 12, 2014 - Proper 23A

Lectionary Readings

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

            There is a story of three well known preachers who were attending an Atlanta Braves baseball game after giving some lectures at Emory University. As they were sitting there watching the game, two men wearing yellow jackets that said “security” on them approached a man sitting a few rows in front of them. And without any words being exchanged, they picked him up and carried him away from his seat. The crowd was stunned. What had happened to make them remove this man? One of the preachers surmised, “he must not have been wearing the wedding garment.”

October 5, 2014 - Proper 22A

Lectionary Readings

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

When I saw that this would be our reading this morning, I was both delighted and apprehensive. There is such a depth to this passage from Exodus, it is a sort of a preacher’s playground. But anytime such a familiar passage is read, it can be quite the challenge because we all have so many assumptions about the text. And this is perhaps most true for the Ten Commandments. You can find them on plaques and they are often memorized in Confirmation classes. We often read them a list of ten rules, divorced from their context and their meaning. And in that process, we lose the beauty of these ten words from God.