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...
The Presentation Year A Malachi 3:1-4 Psalm 24:7-10 Hebrews 2:14-18 Luke 2:22-40 Bill Williams had been a semi-professional musician… an electronics technician… and a computer and video game designer… but he gave all that up to pursue a Master of Arts Degree from the Lutheran School of Theology… in Chicago… where he received an...
Harriet Beecher Stowe was an American abolitionist and author. She is best known for her 1852 novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin (or Life Among the Lowly). It’s an anti-slavery novel which depicts the harsh conditions for enslaved African Americans. The novel had a profound effect on attitudes toward African Americans and slavery in the U.S. and...