Losing Yourself to Find Yourself
Exodus 3:1-15 Proper 17 – A Romans 12:9-21 St. Benedict’s, Los Osos Matthew 16:21-28 August 30, 2020 Losing Yourself to Find Yourself I. Jesus Foretells his Suffering A. Jesus makes the first of his predictions of his own suffering and death in the gospel reading from the 16th ch. of Matthew. 1. He has just heard of John’s violent death at the hands of Herod. a. At the same time at this point in his ministry he is aware of…
“You are the Messiah”
To match the weirdness of this week, Smoke and heat on top of pandemic virtual school starts And election brew-ha-ha…. I have a weird sermon. My brain decided to give me the topic of zombie apocalypse As I started my sermon preparations of reading, thinking, pondering. Now, I’m not a fan of that genre, but I’m been seeing references to it quite a bit In my media posts….. Usually something to the effect of: “Well, 2020 has…
I will, with God’s Help
Isaiah 56:1,6-8 Psalm 67 Romans 11:1-2a, 29-32 Matthew 15: (10-20), 21-28 I think there’s a little bit of Jewish privilege showing up in today’s gospel and in the second reading. Paul proudly shares his Jewish credentials, and Jesus says “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” Privilege is an interesting thing because most of us have ways in which we are privileged in our society and ways in which we are disadvantaged or even…
God is Love-Always
1 Kings 19:9-18 Psalm 85:8-13 Romans 10:5-15 Matthew 14:22-33 It was a quiet evening after the feeding of the five thousand plus. Jesus had gone up a mountain to pray and the disciples headed home across the lake. Perhaps Jesus told them to pick him up later, or perhaps he planned to walk back in his own time. It was a quiet evening hundreds of years earlier when Elijah huddled in his cave, having had a great triumph over the…
Hunger and Hospitality
Isaiah 55:1-5 Psalm 145: 8-9, 15-22 Romans 9:1-5 Matthew 14:13-21 One of the many things I miss during this time in exile is potlucks! Potlucks do have some downsides – like not knowing what you are eating, eating too much and filling up with carbs. All that delicious pasta, rice and beans are not so good for those of us who are diabetic or nearly so. But I love having other people cook for me; I love knowing you all…
Negativity Don’t Pull you Through
Romans 8:26-39 Matthew 13:31-33,44-52 Thanks to St Benedict’s for giving me two new life experiences today. This is my first time ever to preach wearing a mask. It’s also my first time to preach while being video-recorded live. Actually, I’ve done one more fairly new thing this week in preparation, which was to read a book, way outside my wheelhouse. Most of what I read is ecology or theology or world fiction. But the book I’ll lead from today was…
On Tiptoe
Romans 8:12-25 Matthew 13:24-30,36-43 If I have a favorite passage from the Bible I think it must be today’s reading from Romans 8 which has been rendered as “all creation’s standing on tiptoe just to see the daughters and sons of God come into their own.” All creation’s standing on tiptoe just to see the daughters and sons of God come into their own. Let me remind you of what Paul actually said, “I consider that the sufferings of this…
St Benedict – Bishop Lucinda
Photo by Randy Greve on Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/mariya_umama_wethemba_monastery/3667827023/ St. Benedict detail in fresco – Gritty version; St. Benedict’s Abbey, Atchison, Kansas Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
Heart Transplant
Romans 7:15-25a Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30 Our second reading this morning is from Paul’s Letter to the Romans. Romans is often considered the most systematic statement of Paul’s theology. In most of his other letters, Paul is responding at least in part to particular problems in the church to which he writes. But in Romans, he seems to be trying to express his deepest understandings of the gospel. Today’s passage is a difficult one because it is taken out of its…
More than Coffee and Cookies
Romans 6:12-23 Matthew 10:40-42 The Sunday before last, we heard that Jesus sent his disciples out on a mission journey with the instructions “proclaim the good news, ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. You received without payment; give without payment.” Then last week we heard the continuation of his charge to the disciples where he told them that his teaching was controversial and would lead to divisions…