September 25, 2022 - The Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Lectionary Readings

Compassionate God, help us to see what you would have us to see and not be blinded by the distractions all around us ☩ in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

            If last Sunday’s parable of the dishonest manager is the most difficult parable there is, we might have run into the second most challenging parable this morning. Sure, it seems like a fairly straightforward parable about the consequences of ignoring the needy, but, as always, Jesus doesn’t give us the parables as moralistic fairy tales. Instead, the parables are about the shocking, subversive, and saving grace of God. What makes this parable difficult is that there are so many things going on in it that we can be distracted from those notes of grace.

September 18, 2022 - The Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Lectionary Readings

Gracious Lord, help us to follow you, especially when we do not know how to ☩ in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

            I hate this parable. Yes, I know that in Second Timothy we read that “All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,” but still, I hate this parable. I mean, seriously, “make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth”? That sounds more like something from an Enron deposition than it does Jesus. The parable does not have a clear meaning, it’s confusing, and just has a general feel of “ickiness.”

September 4, 2022 - The Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Lectionary Readings

Help us, gracious God, to love in you all things and above all things ☩ in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

            In the reading from Jeremiah, we have that wonderful image of God as the potter and us as the clay. Psalm 139 speaks of the intimacy and profoundness of God. And Philemon is the only Biblical book with only one chapter – so preaching on an entire book is rare opportunity. For the last week and a half, I’ve been trying to plan a sermon about one of those three texts.