Luke 18:9-14
On a wall in my den at home there is a small bulletin board where I put things I don’t want to lose or I cannot think of anywhere else to place them. Things like appointment reminder cards and the schedule of clergy duties on Sunday morning that George sends out to us every few months…
2 Luke 18:1-8
“Now I lay me down to sleep; I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take.” For how many of us, was that the first prayer we were asked to memorize? Or did you rewrite it for your children as I did for my daughter?…
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…
2 Timothy 1:1-14, Luke 17:5-10
There’s a great tendency to think of faith as something that I own. “My faith,” you often hear someone say. “The way I believe.” For faith is some felt experience of being right with God, is another interpretation. Or of God moving in knowable ways in my life. If I perceive it, I have faith. If I do not, then I am short on faith…
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…
Jeremiah 8:18-9:1
We live in a world that is full of brokenness and pain. Loved ones get sick, marriages get stretched to the breaking point, our friends at times betray us, the nation is polarized, the economy still hasn’t recovered, and jobs are hard to find, war continues with no end in sight and the threat of terrorism persists. The list could go on and on…
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 14:1, 7-14
Growing up we all had assigned places at our table, all six of us. My mom and dad were at opposite ends of the table, my sister and I were on either side of my mom, and my two brothers were on either side of my dad. Meals always began with grace. But my father was the enforcer of manners which were to be taught to us in our childhood as we sat at table…
Psalm 71:1-6, Luke 13:10-17
I’m going to speculate that since we are here, we have some sense of Sabbath. Sabbath is a time and a place where we intentionally rest ourselves in God. We enter into the heart, mind of God as best we can discern it for a period. We do it by opening scripture, by singing praises, by joining in prayers, by letting the Sacrament work itself into our being…