So I have to admit that today’s readings didn’t seem to fit together to me at first. Sometimes there is an obvious theme that hits you over the head when you read the readings, and this week isn’t that week for me. We’ve got kings, prisoners, sharing and sacrificing, and a wedding banquet. But take a step back and read into those readings and you will notice a common theme – hospitality.
Sermons
I want to begin by acknowledging the Reverend Dr. Matthew Skinner for his published information on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s book “Why We Can’t Wait”, from which some of the content for my sermon today is drawn. Today we get another gem of a story from Luke — a gem which shows up in none of the other four Gospel writers’ accounts. It also doesn’t show up in Martin Luther King Jr.
“Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” What is treasure? I have to admit, that when I hear the word treasure, two images come to my mind: The first image is of a big cache of goodies. As a kid, my aunt, who was a school teacher, had something called the “Goodie Tree” that showed up around Christmas time. It was a 2 or 3 foot Christmas tree, and there were edible
Midsummer is often a time for family vacations and leisurely coffee hours. It’s tempting to assume that the imperative of our Christian life can be relaxed a little bit while people settle into the welcome routines of rest, recreation, and travel. But this week’s Gospel reading sizzles and spits like a hamburger on a backyard grill, and that sizzling is only made worse by the temperatures we
I suspect that, to most of us, prayer is a puzzle. I’m not sure that most of us even know why it is that we pray. Many people pray as a form of sanctified wish fulfillment. It’s like we think of prayer as a way of having all our dreams come true… if we pray in the right way. I know that listening to my son’s prayers at night, when we pray for people in our lives, that occasionally he asks