Fourth Sunday of Advent The sermon will be a post on our Facebook page. Please click on link to view sermon. Those Who Hear and Do Who is God’s family? Where is God’s home? In the church we often speak of our home parish as a family. Many of us grew up thinking of the church…
Third Sunday of Advent The sermon will be a post on our Facebook page. Please click on link to view sermon. Give Witness and Rejoice The third Sunday of Advent—also known as Gaudete (rejoice)—is one in which the church has rejoiced as the advent of the Messiah draws nearer. Whether or not you mark this Sunday with a…
Thanksgiving Service The sermon will be a post on our Facebook page. Please click on link to view sermon. How Much Is Enough? How do we define an abundant life? Is it by how much we have? Do we define it in comparison or contrast to what others have? Too often, our definition of an abundant life keeps…
Change of Heart The people who hear Peter’s testimony and preaching are cut to the heart. The writer of 1 Peter instructs believers to love deeply from the heart. The disciples who encounter the risen Christ notice afterward that their hearts were “burning” within them as Jesus reveals the scriptures and then himself to them in…
When the Sadducees encounter Jesus with a technical question, he responds by humanizing and placing divine value upon each character in the Sadducees’ hypothetical scenario. Jesus’ response is about resurrection and about naming people as children of God and of light. The answer Jesus gives the Sadducees is about God, whose presence means life. This…
In the gospel today, Zacchaeus joyfully welcomes Jesus into his home, where Jesus prompts a changed heart and mind in his host and proclaims salvation. All this reveals an undercurrent of hospitality and welcome that propels much of the narrative of the Bible. As in other instances of practiced hospitality, something important changes. Salvation is…
We may expect the religious insider to be blessed, the moral person to be right with God. But as is so often the case, Jesus’ parable for today sweeps away conventional expectations. Jesus surprises the disciples and us when he says it’s not the Pharisee but rather the tax collector, that morally suspect, second-class citizen,…
Faith is the theme for today’s readings, but not just any faith. It is a life-transforming faith, one that demonstrates the very presence of God moving, alive, and active in God’s people. In response to Habakkuk’s oracle, the Lord answered him that “the righteous live by their faith” (Hab. 2:4b). But just what does it mean…
A rich landowner tells his unsatisfactory manager he’s going to fire him. We don’t know how long the employee had to clear his desk, but apparently it was long enough to win friends and influence the people who had accounts with his boss. The manager called them in and reduced their debt. When the boss…
Freedom flows through all the readings this day. Moses reminds the people of Israel they have the freedom to choose between life and prosperity or death and adversity. Ironically, this freedom to choose life comes through the freedom to choose obedience to the commands of God. In other words, Moses tells the people, they are…