Pentecost +12 September 1st, 2019 Jeremiah 2:4-13 Hebrews 13:1-8 Luke 14:1-14 I am always puzzled by the programs that public television chooses to show during a fund-drive. In order to solicit contributions from viewers, the managers of the stations concerned invariably air some guru or other who tells us how we can change our lives…
Pentecost XI August 25, 2019 Jeremiah 1:4-10 Hebrews 12:18-29 Luke 13:10-17 In the town where I grew up, Sunday was a day for going to church, eating a long lunch around the table with the extended family, and refraining from shopping (the stores were all closed anyway). If possible, all tedious work-related tasks were to…
Pentecost X August 18, 2019 Isaiah 5:1-7 Hebrews 11:29 – 12:2 Luke 12:49-56 As we studied the gospels of the New Testament this last spring, we discovered that the four gospels are not really ‘biographies’ of Jesus. Unlike most modern biographies of famous people, they don’t explore Jesus’ psychological development or the key moments of…
Pentecost 9 11th August 2019 Genesis 15:1-6 Hebrews 11:1-16 Luke 12:32-40 Nobody really knows who the author of the book of Hebrews was. It was certainly not Paul; the book dates from a later period, and its main purpose is to inform the Christian communities all over the Greco-Roman world of their Hebrew origins. After…
Eighth Sunday after Pentecost August 4, 2019 Hosea 11:1-11 Colossians 3:1-11 Luke 12:13-21 Jesus’ parable of the rich fool which we heard in our Gospel reading this morning is the only one of the parables in the New Testament where God himself has a speaking role. Of course, God appears in the other parables –…