Lent 2C

[RCL] Genesis 15:1-12,17-18; Psalm 27; Philippians 3:17-4:1; Luke 13:31-35 These days, there is no shortage of material when it comes to difficult news. News of an ongoing pandemic. News of violence, oppression, and communities pitted against one another. News of death and loss – not to mention the difficult moments in our personal lives. We…

While it may be hard to imagine what life for Abraham was like, or even whether he was only a patriarchal ideal in the Old Testament, a careful reading of the passage from Genesis connects us to him with a contemporary question: how can we see God’s promises at work in the world and be…

One moonlit night a Fox was prowling about a farmer’s chicken coop, and saw a Hen roosting high up beyond his reach. “Good news, good news!” he cried. “Why, what is that?” said the Hen. “King Lion has declared a universal truce. No beast may hurt a bird henceforth, but all shall dwell together in…

We begin today with Abram at the earliest part of his journey with the Lord. Remember that Abram’s name is later changed by God to Abraham “the father of many nations.” Abram is to lead his people to a new land, but the journey is hard, even harsh. Abram knows he needs a male heir…

As Jesus says in today’s reading from Luke, “I must be on my way.” We Americans are a restless and mobile lot. Ask around your parish community some Sunday morning at coffee hour, and you are likely as not to find fellow parishioners who are transplants from down the road and across the country. Some…

Today may we consider how sometimes the best prayer to God is a groan, a lamentation, or the voice of grief. In the name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Maybe you have had this experience. You attend a visitation at a funeral home, and the place is crowded. People are gathered in small…

There was an ad on TV the other night, another get-rich-quick scheme—something about how to make millions through real estate deals without having to work very hard. Doing things the easy way is almost always more attractive to us than we’d like to admit, more attractive than working hard at something, more appealing than delayed…

What is an acceptable sacrifice to God? Do we really have to take the heifer three years old, the female goat three years old, and the ram three years old and cut them in two, laying each half over against the other, remembering not to cut the turtledove and the young pigeon? Is giving up…

Somewhere, probably around the tenth grade, most of us learned about the Constitution and the Bill of Rights in our American History class. And, somehow, most of us remember something vague about the “separation of church and state.” Well, the founders of this country would be appalled at how their noble ideas of religious liberty…