As we navigate our way through Lent, I invite us to consider all the things we do, but to pay particular attention to those for whom we do them, and to carefully dig down past the typical reasons towards any underlying reasons there may be for doing them. I invite us to be more...
Ash Wednesday Year A Isaiah 58:1-12 Psalm 103:8-14 2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10 Matthew 6:1-6,16-21 There’s a movie from 2007… which tells a tale of friendship… betrayal… secrets… redemption… and reconciliation… and woven into the soundtrack… is a song called Supplication… whose lyrics I believe… reflect the penitence of Lent… I’ve referred to them before…...
The Transfiguration Year A Exodus 24:12-18 Psalm 99 2 Peter 1:16-21 Matthew 17:1-9 The summer after I graduated from high school… in 1971… I went to Israel for eight weeks… it was my parent’s idea… and I went with about 90 other college students… who I think were all Jewish… because the trip...
Epiphany 6 Year A Sirach 15:15-20 Psalm 119 1-8 1 Corinthians 3:1-9 Matthew 5:21-37 Hello… my name is Mike… and I am a sinner… no matter what I do… or don’t do… I am a sinner… not because I want to be… not because of Original Sin… but because I am separated from...
Epiphany 5 Year A Isaiah 58:1-12 Psalm 112:1-9 1 Corinthians 2:1-12 Matthew 5:13-20 I don’t like doom and gloom… or fire and brimstone… and some of you may not know that I grew up… believing that TV evangelists like John Hagee… and Jerry Falwell… and now Franklin Graham… represented all of Christendom… but I’ve...