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…
Hebrews 11:29-12:2
One of the books I remember enjoying as a child sits on a bookshelf in my home today. It is called 100 Greatest Sports Heroes. Now this book is quite dated, as you can imagine, and the heroes listed in it sadly include only a very few women and only a very few African Americans. It purports to present men and women of achievement selected by sports writers from around the country from all of the popular sports of the day…
Luke 12:32-40, Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16
Mary and I tend to do most of our grocery shopping at three stores: Lowe’s, Food Lion, Harris-Teeter. We live near Route 55, over in Apex and those three stores are right there on 55. We use them for different reasons. I love the pretzels at Lowe’s. When I’m out of pretzels I’m off to Lowe’s…
Luke 12:13-21
A few years ago, I joined a couple of other priests from our diocese and worked with a consultant for a couple of years learning about what is referred to as family systems theory. There is a rabbi, Rabbi Edwin Friedman, who has taken a lot of what we’ve learned of family systems theory and put together a book called Generation to Generation to help clergy to understand congregational life…
Luke 11:1-13
I returned home the middle of last week, from Groton, Connecticut where I was with my daughter Elizabeth. I think I shared with you a couple of weeks ago that Elizabeth and her husband Danny live in Groton where he’s in the Navy at a submarine base. He’s what is referred to in the Navy as a “nuke.” He’s been trained in nuclear energy. All these subs are powered by nuclear power…