One of the quirks of doing ministry within the liturgical calendar is that we often have to think about things out of order, so that they might be presented in order. That is, in the middle of Advent, I really should be planning Lent, in a time of hopeful expectation, planning the mournful journey to the tomb. The liturgical calendar …
Celebration and Mourning (Plus: Holy Week, Easter, and a Vote
Holy Week Easter Vote on Pastoral Resident This Sunday, Palm Sunday, is the beginning of Holy Week. The liturgical year began with Advent and the birth of Jesus. One would think that its culmination would be in the death of Jesus after a full year. However, our tradition places that event in the middle of the year signifying that death …
Tears and Laughter
One of the traditional purposes of the church is to proclaim the word of God. Judging by current trends, maybe that’s harder than one would think. My preaching professor told us a story of a young minister who found out ten minutes before a service that he would be filling in to preach. He had never preached before and certainly …
Lost in Death, Found in Life (Plus: Notes on Ordination)
This week’s passage might be the most well-known parable in the Bible. Since it is so well-known, we also know exactly what it means. We are the terrible son, God is the forgiving father, and the bitter brother is, I don’t know, Robert Jeffress? As we discussed last week, the beauty of a parable is that it opens more questions …
Ripped from the Headlines
The lectionary passage this week, Luke 13:1-9, begins with two cryptic news headlines. The first, an apparent murder of Galileans worshiping in the Jerusalem Temple by Roman occupiers. The second, a tragic accident that claimed the lives of eighteen people. The question, then, is a question that we have run into a lot in Luke. Perhaps that is because it …
The Mountain Top and the Ever After
We have two stories from Luke this week: the Transfiguration and Jesus’ Lament for Jerusalem. The Catholic Lectionary in the Second Sunday of Lent always has the story of the Transfiguration. This year is Luke’s year, so we get 9:29-36. Jesus takes Peter and James and John to a mountain top to pray. The disciples just had a lot of …
The Great Reversal: Birds, Lilies, and Climate Anxiety (Luke 12.22-34)
This weekend, houses of worship around the country will participate in the annual “Preach-In” on climate change hosted by Interfaith Power and Light. IPL started as a “religious response to global warming” fifteen years ago when a coalition of Episcopal congregations in California joined together to purchase renewable energy. Since then, they’ve broadened their focus and partnered with a wide …
The Bosom of Abraham
This is one of those weeks where I’m not quite sure what to do. For the past couple of weeks we’ve been talking about the “Great Reversal” in Luke. This week we’re looking at another paradigmatic example of that, the story of Lazarus. Note this is not the story of Lazarus being raised from the dead found in John 11, …
The Poor Will Be Rich… (Program and Recap)
Program Very good discussion this Sunday, but, as always, there were things I was hoping to get to that we could not. We were looking at Luke’s Sermon on the Plain. He makes sharp divisions between good and evil and is very clear that the best result, the ultimate end, is the reversal of fortune for those at the top …
Blessed Are the Poor. Woe to the Rich. Uh-oh.
There is a Monty Python sketch about a Robin Hood-type character named Dennis Moore. He steals from the rich and gives to the poor until the rich have become poor and the poor rich. This is the paradox of reversal: when the first become last and the last first, we end up with the same class hierarchy. Nothing has really …