Third Sunday after the Epiphany, Year A RCL Matthew 4:12-23 Some of you may be old enough to remember the weekly nature documentary, Mutual of Omaha's “Wild Kingdom.” It was the first documentary series of its kind showing animals in their habitat from regions around the globe. This show brought us the cycle of life within God’s creation and did so in the comfort of our own homes. This series has spawned many other documentaries series from the Animal Channel to Nature on PBS. I remember watching an episode of Nature called “Snow Chick.” It was about emperor penguins and it opens with the father penguins nurturing their eggs. The mothers had already left on their two month, 120 mile rou nd t
First Sunday after the Epiphany: The Baptism of our Lord Year A, RCL Acts 10:34-43 Matthew 3:13-17 It takes merely ten verses from the book of Acts to summarize the entire Gospel. Everything you need to know for your salvation is laid out here starting with baptism. The baptism we receive is the same baptism John gave to the people. A baptism with water. A baptism of repentance. And a baptism of new life. Baptism is powerful, even Jesus seems to have been changed by his baptism; for after he was baptized, Jesus begins his ministry to the people. We know what Jesus’ ministry was. We have 27 books in the New Testament that tell us people’s personal experience with Jesus; their experience of h
