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Category Archives: lectionary reflection
God who made the hedgehogs
Arguments over banknotes and silver coins can seem arcane in this day and age – who even uses cash any more? But the question that the Herodians and the Pharisees put to Jesus, and the one that he chose to answer, remain: what are your values? What do you value? Whom do you recognize as bearing the image of the living God? How will you live that out, in everyday transactions and in community? Continue reading
Posted in gun violence, homily, lectionary reflection, sermon
Tagged Jesus, gun violence, money, hedgehogs
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Tomorrow’s sermon today: World Day Against the Death Penalty
On World Day Against the Death Penalty, and in light of this week’s news headlines, an extract from tomorrow’s sermon:
When we get stuck on narratives of vengeance and violence, when we get stuck on who is deserving to attend the feast to which God, not we, issues the invitation, well, then we get stuck.
And here we are, reduced to a nation threatening to stream its gun violence, state-sanctioned and sanitized as justice, to the world. … Continue reading
Posted in lectionary reflection, sermon, sermon preparation
Tagged death penalty, gun violence, Isaiah 25:1-9, Jesus,, matthew 22:1-14
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A love song to the vineyard
Jesus doesn’t need us to make wine. He can make wine out of water. But we have the opportunity to share in the delight of God, the joy that God takes in planting and tending and harvesting and writing love songs to a vineyard. Continue reading
Posted in homily, lectionary reflection, sermon
Tagged parable, Jesus, Psalm 80, death penalty, vineyard, Isaiah 5:1-7, Matthew 21:33-46, parables of the vineyard
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The mind of Christ Jesus, the love of God
What if to have the mind of Jesus Christ, the living image of God was nothing more nor less than to regard that equality not as something to be exploited, but squandered in the service of love? Continue reading
Posted in lectionary reflection, sermon, story
Tagged AI, God, Jesus, kenosis, love, Philippians 2:1-13, Year A Proper 21
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Jonah
A sermon on the story of Jonah and Jesus’ parable of the generous landowner (Matthew 20:1-16) The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger and of great kindness. (Psalm 145:8) Jonah experienced both the anger of God and the … Continue reading
Posted in lectionary reflection, sermon
Tagged generosity, Jesus, Jonah, Matthew 20:1-16, mercy, Psalm 145:8, Year A Proper 20
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Gentiles, tax collectors, and the beloved community
Owe no one anything, except to love one another, writes Paul to his congregation of Romans. And, it is written elsewhere, Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and … Continue reading
Posted in homily, lectionary reflection, sermon
Tagged baptism, beloved community, Jesus, Matthew 18:15-20, Year A Proper 18
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The dance
We find these things to be true, and self-evident, that as good as we pretend or try or believe ourselves to be, we have by design created margins and marginalized other creatures created of God’s affection. That however hard we try to resist, or pretend to resist, the music of the swirl has us tapping our feet. That we have been the ones demanding that God jig to our tune. That we have been exhausting and exhausted. And that the only hope for rest lies elsewhere, with Other-Whom. Continue reading
God of the sparrows
There are approximately 1.6 billion sparrows on the earth, living on every continent, except Antarctica, which always gets a pass. The sparrow, small but ubiquitous, persistent, sometimes pestilent bird, nesting in the girders of a Walmart warehouse or the eaves of your house, most populous of birds, no bird of paradise, its life is held cheaply; yet God, the God of the sparrows, values it so highly that not one will fall from the sky except that it is caught in God’s hand. Continue reading
Posted in homily, lectionary reflection, sermon
Tagged Abraham, Father's Day, Genesis 21:8-21, God of sparrows, God the Father, Jesus, Matthew 10:24-39, Year A Proper 7
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No longer Monday
It’s not Monday any more, but the scent still lingers in the house when they awaken, and Lazarus is grateful for the distraction; he hardly knows himself these days, still amazed at the complicated gift of life. The echoes of … Continue reading
Posted in holy days, lectionary reflection
Tagged Holy Week, Isaiah 42, Jesus, John 12:1-11, Lazarus
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If these were quiet …
Think of the palms, crushed and bruised by the colt and the crowds, and of the ones who came back, the poor, the quiet, who came back to collect their broken stems and bleeding leaves, and wove them into something new, something to sell back to … Continue reading
