Category Archives: sermon

Year A Proper 10: seed for sowing and bread for eating

Frederick Buechner says that parables are like jokes: if you have to have it explained, it’s just not worth it.* In some ways, this parable says the same thing about itself. The last line of Jesus’ explanation is that those … Continue reading →

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Wormfood

Whilst musing over this Sunday’s parable (the sower and the different soils), I hit upon the Dummies.com article, “How to Improve Soil Quality for Healthy Plant Growth,” by Sven Wombwell. Sven suggests that “Worms really are a gardener’s best friends. … Continue reading →

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Crossover

A crossover from today’s Bible Challenge blog, just because Leftovers: Readings for today were Isaiah 7-9, I Thessalonians 5, Psalm 28, OR Judith 15 The day of my graduation from seminary was supposed to be the Rapture (according to the … Continue reading →

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Year A Proper 9: of fourth of July fireworks, parades and prophecies (and little donkeys)

When I was growing up, a trip to the seaside meant (if we were lucky and good) a ride on the beach donkeys. These little donkeys plied their trade on every tourist beach in England. Usually, there would be about half … Continue reading →

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Year A Proper 9: Little Donkey

When I was growing up, a trip to the seaside meant buckets and spades, sandcastles in the sand, fishing nets, for catching shrimps in the rockpools, ice cream, and late in the afternoon, before loading up the car for home, … Continue reading →

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Independence Day

It feels like a good day to be contemplating Sunday’s sermon. Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem! Lo, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on a donkey, on a … Continue reading →

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Things I can’t imagine doing this week

Going out for a beer with a corporation. Telling a woman that her choice of contraception is against my religion. Bellowing “no one wants you” to a bus load of children. Carrying an assault rifle into a department store. Carrying … Continue reading →

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Paying the piper

But to what shall I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the market places and calling to their playmates, ‘We piped to you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not mourn.’ …Yet wisdom … Continue reading →

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Year A Proper 8: Good news and free gifts

I doubt that there is anyone in this room who has never had pressed into their hand, or encountered on the back of a public convenience door, or otherwise been accosted by a photocopied pamphlet containing, among other words, this … Continue reading →

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Year A Proper 8: Whoever welcomes you

Whoever welcomes you welcomes me; whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me (Matthew 10:40). When my parents took me home, they invited into their family a whole other set of DNA, a whole other history, a whole other … Continue reading →

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