One of the advantages of our lectionary — the stories we hear over a three year period — is that we get to hear how the different Gospel writers portrayed different events that appear in the various accounts. Today, we hear of the transfiguration, the story of Christ’s glory which almost certainly preceded the written Gospels. Mark’s story of the transfiguration is told as part of the
Sermons
Today, we get the second installment from Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount. Last week, we heard Jesus’ blessing for those of us who live in certain ways, examples of which were called out in the Beatitudes. Remember that Jesus was talking to people on the northwestern shore of Galilee, between Capernaum and the archeological site of Gennesaret, on the southern slopes of the Korazim Plateau.
For the next three weeks, our Gospel reading from Matthew will be an excerpt from the Sermon on the Mount, perhaps the most famous extended teaching of Jesus from the Gospels. This week, we have the first part of the Sermon, what is often called the Beatitudes. You may recall a sermon where I said that these are attitudes of being - things which we should BE, ways we should live. It’ s a
There are weeks that there is nothing in the readings on which I want to preach, and then there are weeks that have multiple themes that seem like good avenues to preach. There are weeks that the readings that we get just don’t seem to connect to our congregation, and then there are weeks that it seems that the readings are written just for our specific context. Today’s letter from Paul
Whenever I invite people over, I check the house—at least the public parts. Is everything relatively neat and clean? Laundry hanging anywhere? Kitchen counters cleared? Magazines and books straightened? If people show up unexpectedly, they get what they get, and it might not be pretty. I could even be embarrassed that things aren’t as perfect as I’d like them to appear. In one of this