You all know me well enough to know that I am very careful not to cross a line in the pulpit. I don’t preach political sermons, and I ask you to think about that as I wade through the following muck. It might sound political, but if you listen carefully, you don’t hear politics –…
The Wisdom of Solomon is an infrequent visitor to the lectionary, but chapter 3 has etched its way into our liturgical life. In the Burial Rite of the Book of Common Prayer, we are invited to pray: In the midst of life we are in death; from whom can we seek help? From you alone,…
Every third Saturday of the month (like last week), when our monthly service of healing rolls around, I have to admit that I am reminded of a story that I once heard. I’m going to relay that story now, and I promise, I will tie it to today’s readings. The storyteller says: My father and…
Who will you serve? I don’t know if you were uneasy when I asked that or you let it slip over you quickly enough not to notice how much it runs against our culture. So let me ask it again: Who will you serve? Our culture – our humanity – tends to prize freedom. Accomplishment….
We are in the second Sunday of a series of four Hebrew Bible readings from the book of Job. So I thought today it might be good for you to understand the concept of the book of Job. First of all, the date of the original composition of the book cannot be determined, although many…
On the Feast of Michael and All Angels, also known as Michaelmas, we give thanks for the many ways in which God’s loving care watches over us, both directly and indirectly, and we are reminded that the richness and variety of God’s creation far exceeds our knowledge of it. The Holy Scriptures often speak of…
This week, the theme that courses through our readings is healing. God heals in many ways and through diverse peoples. There is no one healing path or modality; there is no particular religious or medical tradition that has a monopoly on divine healing. God heals not only through prayer, but also through penicillin; through medication…
“They did not understand what he was saying and were afraid to ask him.” Questions are our friends. Seem simple? It sure is, but somehow the disciples still missed it. At this point in Mark’s account, Jesus has taken them aside to teach them about his upcoming suffering, death, and resurrection. They don’t understand. We…
In today’s society—when progress for basic civil rights seems to be backwards and mis- and dis-information are rampant; when respect, collaboration, and cooperation in public seem to have gone out the window—Woman Wisdom’s exasperation in the reading from Proverbs (1:22) is felt even more deeply. The Common English Bible translation of verse 22 reads, “How…
Proverbs 22:2 provides a good summary of the thread that binds together these readings: “The rich and poor have a common bond, Yahweh is the maker of them all.” There is an immediate application for us: rich and poor aren’t different species, and they shouldn’t occupy different spaces. But, in the U.S. at least, we’re…
Those among us who fornicate, steal, murder, commit adultery, or talk about others should surely be disturbed by today’s words from Jesus in the Gospel reading. The same might be said for liars, the licentious, the envious, and the arrogant. Last Sunday, I was thankful we were done with the imagery of bread, but then…
When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?” (John 6:60) We claim to eat the body and drink the blood of a guy who died over 2,000 years ago. I think all religions are weird – we’re just used to the weirdness of ours. And it’s…
