Reconciliation starts with faithful remembrance
Proper 26, Year C, Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4, Luke 19:1-10 Reconciliation is difficult. It often means we have to look beyond ourselves at the greater good. Our wounds have to healed enough even though they may still sting or have scabs. Miroslav Volf, one of the speakers at clergy conference last week says that there are four components to reconciliation. Remember, repent or forgive, repair, and embrace. Most of us believe that our memories are good and that we have no problem r
Why don't they work?
Proper 25, Year C, Luke 18:9-14 Two men go out one day seeking God. Each acts in accordance to who they are. One is a Pharisee. He is the model citizen with whom no one can complain about. He does everything he should. He follows all the rules including fasting and giving 10% of his income to the church. The second man is a Tax Collector. We often want to equate Tax Collectors in the Bible with IRS workers, but we can’t. They are absolutely different. In the Bible, a Tax Coll
The Unjust Judge
Proper 24, Year C, Luke 18:1-8 How many of us enjoy doing the same thing over and over again. A friend of mine had a summer job growing up at a green bean canning plant. He was on what they called first line, the first part of the conveyor process which the trucks unload on to. He along with a couple of other high school boys would sort through the beans pulling out large items such as sticks, rocks, and rats. It was a rather mundane job watching the green beans zoom by over
Get up and go!
Proper 23, Year C, Luke 17:11-19 Get up and go! This is what Jesus tells the Samaritan after the Samaritan offers Jesus praise. Mary, likewise, gets up and goes to Elizabeth to tell her what she has experienced after the Annunciation, when she is told that she is pregnant and carrying the Messiah. The shepherds, at Jesus’ birth, give praise to him. Then they get up and go to tell the world all of what they have heard and seen. Get up and go seems to be a common narrative in t
