Sermons
Thanksgiving?
So why am I talking about thanksgiving? You note there is a lower case “t” in the last sentence but there is a strongly implied upper cast “T.” Hadley and I used to work with a number of college students back in the 90s and early 00s. College students can almost always be convinced to eat something and we made a point of inviting students into our home for meals…
It can be a confusing day
There are not a lot of specifically “dual-purpose” days in the church year. There might only be one, today. Today is Palm/Passion Sunday. I think I might have mentioned, in one or the other of the sermons, the futility of fulminating against the lazy society we are in with “no one” attending Good Friday services anymore. The committee that put together the Revised Common Lectionary realized this futility and instead…
Where is value?
Oscar Wilde said a cynic is someone who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. Whether or not a cynic is well-served by the definition is less of interest to me than the overall discussion of value and what things might be worth. Two of our Lectionary texts this Sunday specifically address the worth of both tangible and intangible things. In the Gospel lesson, we read about…
Manna and prodigals . . . imagine
The Lectionary sometimes makes more sense than other times. This Sunday we have an Old Testament lesson about the Israelites finally entering the promised land and a Gospel lesson about the Prodigal Son. This is a bit of an odd combination. It is especially notable in that the Lectionary separates out the story of the Prodigal Son and leaves the other two parables (the Lost Sheep and the Lost Coin)…
Those are not my ancestors . . . or are they?
It seems there is a hunger these days to find out about our ancestors. For fees starting at around a hundred dollars, you can have companies analyze your DNA and tell you how much of various ethnicities you may have. I understand the interest, I have a similar interest coming from my ongoing fascination with and study of history. I am generally indifferent to what ethnicities I might have as…
Fear . . . we all have it
Everyone is afraid of something or some things. This does not make all of us cowards; bravery is going forward even though one is afraid. Anyone who literally has no fear is probably suffering from a genetic disorder called Urbach-Wiethe disease. Not having any fear is a recipe for disaster. That being said, very few of us enjoy being afraid, I mean really afraid, not the fear we seek in…
Another year, another Lent
Lent happens every year so it isn’t so much a surprise as wondering what I can say about Lent that hasn’t been said before, maybe even by me!? I am not interested in skipping parts of the Liturgical Year, especially not for such a shabby reason as . . . it’s not easy. I am grateful for the Holy Spirit who frequently makes what I might call, “not easy,” into…
Are transfiguration and transformation different?
Transfiguration and transformation are quite similar words. They are obviously not identical, neither in spelling nor meaning, but are they different? There are many different words meaning virtually or literally the same thing . . . what about these two? As I thought about Transfiguration Sunday and reviewed the texts for today I began to think of the two words as similar but with a significant difference. I’m not willing…
Really? Really, Jesus?
There are a lot of things we are asked to do as followers of Christ. Today’s Gospel text has some of the toughest. Luke 6:27-38 is part of the Sermon on the Plain and includes: loving your enemy, turning the other cheek, allowing corrupt laws to take your property, the Golden Rule, and more. One of the commentators I read suggested it is impossible to love your enemy because once…
Why talk about trees?
Why might we want to talk about trees? I’m from Saskatchewan so I suppose it could be some sort of jealousy, southern Saskatchewan doesn’t have a lot of trees but northern Saskatchewan has a bazillion trees so don’t look down on the whole province. It isn’t jealousy. I wanted to talk about trees because they show up in two of our Lectionary readings and are the star of the Psalm…