April 15, 2019 - Holy Monday

Lectionary Readings

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

            Here, at the front end of Holy Week, I want to say something about the week in general before getting into the specific texts for Holy Monday. Holy Week is when our faith is set before us in the unfolding drama of Jesus’ final week leading up to his Crucifixion and Resurrection. It’s a story that cannot adequately be reduced into Palm Sunday and Easter alone, though there are many Christians who will experience it that way. But something is lost when we stay at the surface level of these savings acts of God. And then there are the forgotten days of Holy Week – Holy Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Saturday. The reason why we mark these days with special liturgies is to saturate ourselves in this story, because that’s really the best way to do it. It’s something like swimming – a question of whether we want to merely get our ankles wet, go up to our waists, or plunge ourselves into the deep end.

August 6, 2017 - Feast of the Transfiguration

Lectionary Readings (with the Epistle from Proper 13A used)

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

            Do you all remember where we were in Romans last week? At the end of chapter 8, St. Paul proclaimed “For I am convinced that nothing, not things present nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor rulers, nor death, nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” That’s really the pinnacle of Christian faith and hope – the peace that comes from being confident in the invincible love of God. It’s sort of like being at the top of the drop tower ride at Carowinds – you have a majestic view and feel as if you’re on top of the world when you’re 100 feet in the air. But then comes the drop.