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.