November 4, 2018 - Proper 26B

Lectionary Readings

In the name of God – who was, and is, and is to come. Amen.

            “Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. And you shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these.” What a world this would be if our actions were more aligned with those words. The reason why I preach about love so much is that the Beatles were right, “love is all you need.” Being rooted in the knowledge that God loves us, if we respond to that love with our whole being then we’d see more what we pray for each week – thy kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven. But because of Sin, we aren’t the best at remembering that we are loved or showing love to others. And so love must remain at the center of the Church’s preaching. Once we get love right, then I’m happy to entertain a discussion about what the next priority ought to be. But until then, love remains at the center.

December 27, 2015 - Christmas 1C

Lectionary Readings

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

            “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.” During Christmastide, we celebrate the Incarnation, the coming of God to us in Jesus. Matthew and Luke give us nativity stories with Mary, Joseph, wise men, angels, and shepherds, but John gives us a cosmic nativity scene. And in doing so, the gospeller John connects Jesus to Moses and to John the Baptist. Our reading notes that Jesus “came to his own people.” Though there is a very transcendental nature to Jesus that is not confined by time or space, Jesus also lived in a very finite context. He was born in modern-day Palestine, spoke Aramaic, and grew up learning about the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Jesus was Jewish, and that fact not only influences our interpretation of him in Scripture, but also has important implications for us today.