Today’s readings for the 2nd to the last Sunday of the church year have a little something for everyone.
For the lawyer, we have the scene from the book of Daniel, and the heavenly courtroom. The Father, the Ancient of Days, is seated on His throne, with brilliant white clothing, and white,…
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The final countdown, the last three Sundays of the year, the last days. Our thoughts turn to eschatology, words about the end. Today’s readings all deal with the end, each in their own way. The reading from Hebrews reminds me a bit of my 8th grade art teacher. She believed that…
Distinctions. We make them all the time. We distinguish body and soul, Law and Gospel, justification and sanctification, the two natures of Christ, faith and good works. We make distinctions because our mouths don’t multi-task. Nor do our brains, no matter how much we kid ourselves. You can only talk and…
Distinctions. We make them all the time. We distinguish body and soul, Law and Gospel, justification and sanctification, the two natures of Christ, faith and good works. We make distinctions because our mouths don’t multi-task. Nor do our brains, no matter how much we kid ourselves. You can only talk and…
Today is the 8th and last in our sermon series on Paul’s circular letter to the Ephesian congregation. We’ve come a long way. From the “cosmic Christ” and Paul’s remarkable statement that God has “recapitulated” everything in heaven and earth in the crucified and risen body of Jesus, to our own election in…
I remember my sixth grade English teacher. She was young, blonde, and quite beautiful. All the boys in 6th grade had a major crush on her. That’s not why I remember her, though. I remember her for sentence diagramming. Sentence diagramming is pretty much a lost art these days and…
A weak prophet. A weak apostle. A weak Messiah in His home congregation. If you’re looking for displays of divine muscle, you’re a week too late. Last week we had two healings for the price of one - a woman cured of a twelve year bleeding and a twelve year old…
Last Sunday, we heard about Jesus asleep at the helm of a sinking boat. This Sunday, something a little closer to our experience - Jesus caught in heavy traffic. In his version of the Gospel, Mark gives us two intertwined stories - the story of a desparate women whose last hope was to…
She was obviously very religious, clutching a worn Bible in one hand, nervously fingering the tiny, gold cross that hung from her neck with the other. She was also obviously afraid to fly. She’d been anxious since going through airport security, and old images of 9/11 kept creeping into her mind. She…
Some people thought Jesus was crazy. They were saying, “He’s beside himself.” You know, not playing with a full deck, elevator stopping a floor or two short. Lost his mind. Surrounded by a crowd of religious fanatics and weirdos, calling disciples, going around preaching the kingdom of God. His family…