There’s a key phrase in this week’s Gospel reading that I wonder if we all kind of skip over, hoping to get right to the meat of the story: “in the wilderness.” It’s relayed by Matthew not just once, but a second time, echoing the words from the prophet Isaiah. John – the Baptizer – shows up in the wilderness and cries out from the wilderness. As much as we want to focus on
Sermons
How many of you have seen the movie Sister Act? For some reason, this reading from Romans always reminds me of the scene where the sisters give Sister Mary Clarence, played by Whoopi Goldberg, an alarm clock because she is having trouble getting out of bed on time. The alarm clock, which is the shape of a daisy, has a rousing alarm of, “Out of bed, you daisy head.” But in truth, I think that
Today’s Gospel text may seem out of sequence to us. After all, here we are on the last Sunday of the Christian year (Advent is the beginning of a new church year and it begins next Sunday.), and we are reading texts that remind us of Holy Week, Good Friday, and Easter. And where does this term “Reign of Christ” that we use today really come from? Many of you might be wondering why we did
Today’s words of warning in the Gospel of Luke follow the account of the widow who displayed true devotion to God’s temple by giving two small coins. This devotion, if it had been replicated by those in the leadership of the temple, would have protected it from the disaster that was to come. In fact, this view appears to be common among all of our gospel writers. Today’s Gospel begins with
Today’s Gospel from Luke introduces us to one of the more unusual characters in scripture, the wealthy tax collector Zacchaeus. He’s mentioned only in Luke’s Gospel. And he’s the only one identified in any of the Gospels explicitly by his physical stature. Luke says that Zacchaeus had trouble seeing Jesus because he was “short in stature,” so he climbed a sycamore tree for a better