English – Click to open Pentecost XIIAugust 31, 2025Jeremiah 2:4-13 Hebrews 13:1-16 Luke 14:1, 7-14 Most encounters with angels and the voices delivering their messages are a little more obvious than those recommended to us in the reading from the book of Hebrews. “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that,…
Pentecost XI August 24, 2025 Jeremiah 1:4-10 Psalm 71:1-6 Hebrews 12:18-29 Luke 13:10-17 Before the invention of the steam engine powered by coal, most of the pulling force needed to handle very heavy objects relied on animal or human strength (often enforced), and on two major technical innovations: the lever and the pulley. It is…
Pentecost XAugust 17, 2025Isaiah 5:1-7 Hebrews 11:29-12:2 Luke 12:49-56 I have been trying to grow a grapevine in a corner of the little roof garden above my apartment. I had a vision of sitting underneath its shade; making stuffed vine leaves, and maybe picking a bunch of grapes or two. Nearly twenty years ago, I…
Pentecost IXAugust 10, 2025Isaiah 1:1, 10-20 Psalm 50:1-8, 23-24 Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16 Luke 12:32-40 August 10 is a special kind of anniversary for me—what I like to call my “Americanniversary.” It’s the day I first set foot in the United States: August 10, 2016! I had been offered a position to teach French for a year…
Pentecost 8August 3, 2025Hosea 11:1-11 Colossians 3:1-11 Luke 12:13-21 Do you remember the story of Midas? He may (or may not..) have been the king of the Phrygians in Turkey at the time of the second Assyrian Empire. Dionysus, (the god of merrymaking) had a foster father, Silenus. Silenus became so drunk that he fell…