Jer 1: 4-10; Ps 71: 1-6; 1 Cor 13: 1-13; LUKE 4: 21-30

In you, O Lord, have I taken refuge; let me never be ashamed. AMEN.

Last week’s Gospel ended with today’s first sentence, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” We, like those who heard Jesus say this originally, hear this with awe and wonder. Imagine being present to hear the person speak who has the Spirit of the Lord resting on him to preach: good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives, the recovery of sight to the blind, and to set at liberty those who are oppressed. Imagine how exciting that would have been, would be. Then, we might have second thoughts. The psalmist acknowledges taking refuge in the Lord, and asks, “never [to] to be ashamed… For you are my hope…my confidence since I was young.”

Hurricane Sandy: A message to readers who need assistance

If you need help, contact DisasterAssistance.gov - Home. You can also apply via smartphone at http://m.fema.gov, or call (800) 621-3362 or TTY (800) 462-7585.

People will continue to need assistance for months. If you want to help, you can volunteer or donate cash to the Red Cross. You can also give to Doctors Without Borders, Occupy Sandy Relief, 350.org, or to The Episcopal Relief and Development's Hurricane Sandy Response Fund

Image by NOAA and the Naval Research Lab.

Meditation for the 16th Sunday after Pentecost: Why Me?

The gospel for Sunday follows readings that ask us to imagine a loving God, who surrounds us with goodness and strength and a multitude of challenges. Jesus confronts his disciples with a question: “who do you say that I am?” And then Jesus describes pattern for living: “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.” I imagine some stunned silence.

Six years ago, I slid Barbara Crafton’s “Almost Daily Mo” response into my lectionary text. I pick it up fairly regularly as a reminder: “Take up your cross" isn't really about patience under suffering. There's nothing plodding about this counsel. It's not about patience; it's about an embrace. Don't hide from your cross. Don't deny your cross. Don't change the subject every time your cross comes up. Take it up! Don't let your cross turn you into anything less than the human being God made you, no matter what it takes from you in the end. Find out just how much you have left and how to walk with it. Because your cross, if you have embraced it, becomes the Way.”

Sermon: B 15 Pentecost 18 Proper 9 September 2012

Prv 22:1-2, 8-9, 22-23; Ps 125; Jms 2: 1-10, 14-17; MK &: 24-37

This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice…  AMEN.

The Proverbs two-liners set my teeth as much on edge as do James with the Gospel. Our culture also bombards us with similar slogans, as absolute and hard to do. “The rich and poor have this in common: the Lord God made them all.” Duh. “What good is it if you say you have faith but not works? Can faith save you? If someone is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,’ and you don’t supply their needs, what’s the good? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.” Duh.

MEDITATION For Sunday August 5th (Proper 13): Living Together

The Collect: Let your continual mercy, O Lord, cleanse and defend your Church; and, because it cannot continue in safety without your help, protect and govern it always by your goodness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

It took Nathan telling a parable before David could recognize his own cruelty and greed. Human beings never seem to do too well at loving our neighbors – or even simply managing not to kill them – when we become too powerful, or too isolated: when we lose our ties to community. The exhortation to the Ephesians challenges us to see ourselves not as self-contained, fully autonomous units, but as parts of a Body so much greater and more important than ourselves. We each have gifts to give that are necessary for our life together. We can only ever fully become what God created us to be when we help build up the Body that we try to become together, week by week, when we receive the Bread of Life.