The Rev. Javier Almendárez Bautista reflects on Matthew 25:1-13 as we approach the end of the liturgical year: “Every ending is a kind of new beginning, my friends. Every ending demands us to look deep within and find the light of Christ burning forth, even in the darkest night.”
The Rev. George Adamik discusses five major roles for the contemporary church based on Avery Dulles’s classic work.
The Rev. Tony Wike discusses Matthew 22:34-46 and the greatest commandment: “Loving our neighbor as ourselves is an attitude of caring for others genuinely, of taking the needs of others seriously and without judgment, beginning at home and extending to our neighbors near and far, friend and enemy, us and them.”
The Rev. George Adamik reflects on Matthew 22:15-22: “We read the scriptures as if we have no money, and we then use our money as if we’ve never heard the scriptures.”
The Basilica of the Annunciation is a church that is found in Nazareth near the site of the story we often tell around Advent, where the Angel Gabriel shows up and interrupts the young girl’s life. “Greetings, favored one. The Lord is with you.” The church itself is grander than many others, maybe not quite true to the Virgin’s humble origins. (Exodus 32:1-14, Matthew 22:1-14)
If you are like me, you’ve spent part of this week puzzled by violence. After watching nature do so much violence, first by the fires in the west and then by the hurricanes in Texas, Florida, and many of the Caribbean islands and in the Dominion of Puerto Rico, many of us began to feel emotionally exhausted. … Then the shootings in Vegas happened…. (Matthew 21:33-46)
I heard a story recently about a taxi driver, a Somalian immigrant, riding around New York in his cab. He had one cassette with him, in the old tape deck of the cab. For those of you on the younger side, cassettes are the things where music was stored, and yu put them in a tape deck. And in that tape was his wife’s voice. She is a singer, still back in his home country. (Philippians 2:1-13)
I doubt that there’s anybody here in this room who, after hearing that parable (Matthew 20:1-16), doesn’t say, “what?” That does not make sense. It doesn’t seem fair. This idea that a landowner hires people at daybreak, another group at 9:00, another group at 3:00, another group at 5:00, and interestingly, he pays the five o’clock people first….
As far as White House press secretaries go, I have, for some time now, had a clear favorite. Her name is Claudia Jean Cregg (C.J. Cregg) played by Allison Janney in the TV series, The West Wing. … It’s surprising when viewers find out, a few seasons in, that C.J. as done something she feels deeply ashamed of. (Matthew 18:21-35)
Context is everything. When we try to understand something, it’s so important to know the context. I want to share some thoughts this morning on this reading, that letter that Paul wrote to the Romans and allow that to engage us in our lives at St. Paul’s. (Romans 13:8-14)