August 25, 2019 - Proper 16C

Lectionary Readings

O God, grant us by the gift of your Holy Spirit to worship you with our whole lives ☩ in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

            If you were to ask people what it means to be a Christian, you’d probably have a lot of people who respond with some sort of comment about “worshipping God.” And, indeed, worship is central to what it means to be a follower of Christ. But what is worship?

August 18, 2019 - Proper 15C

Lectionary Readings

Gracious and loving Father, we thank you that by water and the Spirit you have made us a new family in Christ. Amen.

            I’ve never understood those who insist on maintaining Biblical family values. Have they ever read the Bible? Jesus said, “From now on five in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three; they will be divided: father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.” This isn’t exactly the cuddly depiction of Jesus that we so often make him out to be.

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.