[RCL] Exodus 14:19-31; Psalm 114 or Exodus 15:1b-11,20-21; Romans 14:1-12; Matthew 18:21-35 Have you ever heard this warning: Be careful what you pray for – you might get it. Watch out – you just might get what you are after. Here’s a prayer many of us pray at least once a week – forgive us…

[RCL]: Exodus 14:19-31; Psalm 114 or Exodus 15:1b-11, 20-21; Romans 14:1-12; Matthew 18:21-35 Have you ever heard this warning: Be careful what you pray for – you might get it. Watch out – you just might get what you are after. Here’s a prayer many of us pray at least once a week – forgive…

As you heard today’s gospel, did it make you uncomfortable—so that you shifted your weight from one foot to another, or perhaps gazed awkwardly into space? That parable Jesus tells does not pack a dose of sweet comfort. It challenges us outrageously in a spot where we are most tender: the trouble we have with…

Five Amish schoolgirls killed, 11 wounded, by a shooter in Pennsylvania, the headlines cried in 2006. The Amish community not only comforted the shooter’s wife and children, they forgave him. The Amish were reviled by many in the press because they forgave even as they mourned the death of their own innocent children. In 1948,…

You have to be taught to hate. Little boys do not stitch together their own Klansman robes. Young girls do not look longingly at vests in shop windows with visions of being a suicide bomber. Yes, children will readily turn sticks into swords and guns for their play. But they do not name someone as…

The Old Testament scholar Gerhard von Rad wrote: “Real forgiveness is not a purely interpersonal matter, but it reaches deeply into the relationship of men before God.” The three lectionary passages today, taken from the end of the book of Genesis, from St. Paul’s Letter to the Roman Christians, and from Matthew’s retelling of Jesus’…

Today is September 11, a date that will be remembered for generations yet to come. It is a date that Americans consider one of the most significant in the nation’s history. It is a date that is associated with other epic historic events such as the founding of the United States, the end of the…

Daily television images flood our imaginations with pictures of suffering and destruction. On September 11th, 2001, the world witnessed events that blew away any remaining sense of security. Death, destruction, loss, innocent suffering, and grief have seemed constant companions for many of us. The remembrance of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and…