Sermons
Not a pop song
The title for these sermons is “The look of love” which for at least some of us instantly takes us to a particular time and place, i.e. 1982 and wherever we were then. (Here is a link to the song to save you the trouble of looking it up https://youtu.be/BX1pRTK9R0s) However, I am not trying to get us to spend too much time with early pop hits but rather with…
Why are we talking about joy again?
There is a short answer and a long answer to the question posed in this post’s title. The short answer is, it is the third Sunday of Advent which is the Sunday of Joy. The longer answer begins with a short answer and then an explanation. We are talking about joy again because we forget. Every so often I run across well meaning folks from other religious traditions, usually free…
I hate waiting
The second Sunday of Advent is the Sunday of Peace. As I was reflecting on what this might mean and where the texts for this week might be heading I kept coming back to the notion of “patience.” I don’t think there is much profit in us getting together and telling stories of our impatience to try and determine who is the least patient of all; I’m willing to say…
Happy new year!
Yes, you read the title correctly, Happy new year! It is a new church year. The Lectionary year begins with the first Sunday of Advent, the Sunday of Hope. This year I was reminded, as I did some reading of Walter Brueggemann, of the both/and nature of Advent. We are “in between” the two Advents of Jesus; the first when he came to earth as a human being, and, second…
Last Sunday of the year
It might seem strange to be talking about the last Sunday of the year when we aren’t even in December yet but . . . it is the last Sunday of the church year, the liturgical year. Next Sunday we begin a new church year with Advent. The last Sunday of the year is called the Reign of Christ Sunday or Christ the King Sunday, it depends on your tradition,…
Is timing everything?
The church year is almost over. This Sunday and next and then we are into Advent and a brand new year. It seemed fitting somehow to look at a text that is often used in discussions about the timing of the return of Jesus. It is all too easy to get caught up in details of what this might mean. Eschatology, the study of last things, is a perfectly fine…
Memory and hope
This is the Sunday closest to Remembrance Day and as such we had some moments of remembrance in the service. As I specifically mention in at least one of the sermons, I don’t preach on secular calendar events. There is nothing wrong with those events but we are Revised Common Lectionary churches and it is the Lectionary that provides the texts. With that in mind, I was gratified to see…
All Saints Sunday
All Saints Day is one of the liturgical days that don’t get much attention in many Protestant churches. Not too surprising as it is one of the ones tied to a secular calendar date which makes difficult to get it in. There are two ways to deal with these special days, one is to ignore them, the other is to celebrate them on the Sunday closest to them. This is…
Still more questions
This section of Matthew is filled with questions. As I think I mentioned last week, these are a particular kind of question, the “gotcha” kind. In Matthew 22.15-46 Jesus deals with: a combined question about taxes from the Pharisees and Herodians, a question about marriage from the Sadducees and a question about the Law from the Pharisees. None of these questions were intended to facilitate dialogue, or answers for that…
If it belongs to the emperor then give it to emperor
This Sunday we looked at one of the more well known stories in the Gospels. Jesus is asked a leading, and potentially quite dangerous question, about taxes. There is a lot going on behind that question. The Pharisees and Herodians actually got together to try and come up with something that would neutralize or remove Jesus. We don’t really have an analogy for this kind of cooperation they disliked each…