Sunday, August 27, Year A, Proper 16, RCL Track 1 Exodus 1:8-2:10, Psalm 124, Romans 12:1-8, Matthew 16:13-20 The disciples are put on the spot. “Who do people say that the Son of Man is,” Jesus asks. We hear the disciples falter and fumble around as they attempt to answer. Some say you are like John the Baptist, a kind of crazy religious persons. Others say Elijah, a great prophet who is to return from years past. While others say you are an important prophet like Jeremiah. But like a good southerner, this wasn’t the question Jesus was really asking. So, he clarifies his question. “Who do you say that I am?” Almost predictably Simon Peter is the first to give it a go. I wonder if Simon thou
Sunday, August 20, Proper 15, Year A RCL Track 1 Genesis 45:1-15, Romans 11:1-2a, 29-32, Matthew 15: (10-20), 21-28 Paul says that all of us are imprisoned in disobedience. Why have we been imprisoned this way? So that we can be merciful to all! We are to offer grace and forgiveness or mercy to all people, as Paul says. We offer this grace because we have been given the same grace from God; through Christ’s life, death, and resurrection. It is only in the recognition of the grace that has been bestowed upon us that we can forgive others. Joseph’s brothers plotted to kill him and sold him into slavery because they were jealous and had hatred for him. They even thought that they would never
Proper 14, Year A, Track 1, Romans 10:5-15, Matthew 14:22-33 Peter goes it alone. He leaves his companions in the boat so that he can be part of a miracle. We know that he and the other disciples didn’t like the wind and the waves while they were in the boat. They spent all night in this boat, far from land, being battered by wind and wave. They couldn’t sleep; for early in the morning they saw Jesus walking toward them on the waters of the tormented sea. What type of person just steps out into what they fear? Knowing that Jesus wasn’t a ghost, and seeing them walk confidently toward him, gives Peter respite from the fear. It even gives him hope that he could do more than he has ever done be
