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...

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...