Twenty-Sixth Sunday after Pentecost Sunday, November 18, 2018 Proper 28 Year (cycle): B Epistle: Hebrews 10:11-14 (15-18) 19-25 The longest journey, from the head to the heart. “Then Jesus began to say to them, “Beware that no one leads you astray. Many will come in my name and say, ‘I am he!’ and they…
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Lessons for All Saints Day (or the Sunday closest to it) – John 11:32-44 Sunday, Nov. 4, 2018 How many times have we asked similar questions that the Jews, who were with Mary, asked in times of tragedy (John 11:37)? “But some of them said, ‘Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind…
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Proper 25: Sunday, Oct. 28 Year B – Mark 10:46-52 Faith is often thought of from an intellectual perspective. “I believe in my mind that God exists and that he raised Jesus from the dead.” Certainly, that’s an essential component of faith. Jesus tells us we must love God with all of our minds (Luke…
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Proper 24 year B Mark 10:35-45 ‘When Christ calls a man, he bids him to come and die.’ When Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote these words in his book The Cost of Discipleship, he had come to understand that which James and John would only come to understand after the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus – that…
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Twenty-first Sunday after Pentecost Proper 23: Sunday, Oct. 14, 2018 Year B The word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow; it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And before him no creature is hidden,…
[ Read More]Proper 22 Year B – Reflection for Oct. 7, 2018: Mark 10:2-16 A number of years back after I had spent a couple of years in ordained ministry and knew my congregation well, I thought it was the appropriate time to preach on one of the hard (hardest?) sayings of Jesus we find in the…
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Reflection for September 30, 2018: James 3:5-10 and 5:13-20, Mark 9:38-50, “Start by Giving Water” Our Gospel for September 30, 2018 is very strange unless you understand what Jesus is quoting. The critical words come towards the end of the passage when Jesus says, “Their worm never dies and the fire is never quenched.” Now…
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Reflection for Sunday, September 23, 2018 – Mark 9:30-37 The Collect for this Sunday beautifully sets the tone for the passage from Mark’s Gospel we’re about to hear. With the busyness and demands of life weighing us down, our corporate worship will begin with this poignant plea we would “not be anxious about earthly things, but to…
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Reflection for Sunday, September 16, 2018 – Mark 8:27-38 This section of Mark’s Gospel is in many ways a turning point in the text. Up until this moment, the true identity of Jesus seems to be elusive to those most associated with him; the disciples, the religious leaders, and the crowds. “They have been slow…
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Reflection for Sunday, September 9, 2018 – Mark 7:24-37 From there he set out and went away to the region of Tyre.[a] He entered a house and did not want anyone to know he was there. Yet he could not escape notice, 25 but a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately heard about him, and…
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