James 5:7-10, Matthew 11:2-11
I’d like to do a little liturgical teaching this morning. Over the last few weeks of Advent we’ve heard about the theology of Advent, the spirituality of Advent. I’d like to talk a little about some of the liturgical things we do during this season of Advent…
Matthew 3:1-12
Have you ever read something, while you’re reading a paragraph or you get to the bottom of the page, where you stop and say, “What did I just read? It doesn’t make any sense.” You go back and read it again. That happened a lot to me when I was in seminary…
Luke 23:33-43
Two things today: a teaching and a reflection. Today is the Feast of Christ the King. It’s the last Sunday of the liturgical year. The next Sunday is the first Sunday of Advent which begins a new liturgical year…
Luke 20:27-38
How many of you know the comedian George Carlin? I don’t want to surprise you, but he’s one of my favorite comedians. Actually, Robin Williams and George Carlin are both in a similar category for me…
Matthew 5:1-12
Imagine with me, if you can, that we lost all the scriptures. They disappeared from the Planet Earth. But all we had was this text that we just read from Matthew’s Gospel. This Gospel reading that is often referred to as the Beatitudes. I believe that if that’s all we had, we’d have what we need to know what it means to be a follower of Jesus…
Luke 17:11-19
A few years ago I was visiting a parishioner at the hospital, who was dying. I remember arriving there, and the family was gathered in the hospital room. I spent some time there. When someone is dying it’s just a very sacred time. I always try to respect a family’s time together…
Luke 16:19-31
There was a rich man. Jesus tells this parable, “There was a rich man.” There was also another man in the story, and what’s interesting is, he has a name, Lazarus. Somehow Lazarus has a name and the other man is described as a rich man. It’s said, that in all the parables that Jesus gave, this may be the only one where one of the characters actually has a name…
Luke 15:1-10
Have you ever seen that painting of a shepherd? It’s usually depicted as a shepherd holding a staff, walking, and having over his shoulders a lamb, holding the feet as he’s walking. I’ve seen that painting in different variations. I’ve also seen a sculpture of that nature as well. That’s something that comes from the Gospel reading this morning…
Luke 14:25-33
Did Jesus really say that? Did you listen to that Gospel reading? Did that one phrase in that reading jump out at you? It says, “Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wives and children, brothers and sisters, yes even life itself cannot be my disciple.” Does that sound like something Jesus would say? It’s kind of disturbing if you read it…
Luke 12:32-40, Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16
Mary and I tend to do most of our grocery shopping at three stores: Lowe’s, Food Lion, Harris-Teeter. We live near Route 55, over in Apex and those three stores are right there on 55. We use them for different reasons. I love the pretzels at Lowe’s. When I’m out of pretzels I’m off to Lowe’s…