Proper 17A

It is a hard job being religious. Perhaps we feel this the more when we compare our lives with those of the saints. Of course we have our excuses. The world was less complicated in their days. People had time to pray seven times a day, like the psalmist. We move from that excuse to…

Last Sunday’s gospel was really fun – Peter’s answering for the disciples that Jesus is much more than people were saying he was – that he was the Messiah. Fun because Jesus affirmed them and even told Peter he was a rock on which he would build the church. Fun for us, because we can…

Sooner or later, all of us have to bear something that is, to all intents and purposes, unbearable. A young widow is left with three children to raise alone because her husband was killed in Iraq. A baby dies at birth. A sister dies in a car crash involving a drunk driver. Sometimes it is…

Paul’s twelfth chapter in the letter to the church in Rome and the sixteenth chapter of Matthew’s Gospel, both seek to open to us the mysteries of a life lived with God. Herein lies the heart of the good news. Characteristically, it is good news that sounds like bad news before we find a way…

We live in a time when there is a most peculiar notion generally present in our culture. It is the self-help notion. There are books by the crate-full, videotapes, audiotapes, and hundreds of devices and processes designed to assist us or guide us as we help ourselves. We can gain weight, lose weight, become a…

Do you believe in miracles? Well, that’s what we have come to celebrate today: the miracles of Saint David Pendleton Oakerhater, the only Native American on our calendar of saints. Like all good saints, Saint David Oakerhater has miraculous events attached to his name: wonderful acts God performed through him that really do defy our…