Receiving Your Inheritance XVIII – 2 Lent, Year A
I remember when my youngest daughter was born. It took a lot longer for the contractions to do their work than I’d expected, but when they had, things started to happen pretty quickly. When Gretchen was born, she was mad. No two ways about it. She hollered at us for two hours straight. (I’d like […]
Receiving Your Inheritance – The Beatitudes
Dear Friends, More has been written on the Beatitudes than I could read in a week. There can’t be anything new to say about them, can there? Still, having read them in Luke’s Gospel, in the setting in which Luke places them, I am going to presume to say something I hope will be new […]
Receiving Your Inheritance – III Epiphany Year A
Receiving Your Inheritance started out as a weekly email I sent out to a couple hundred recipients, mostly members of the Brotherhood of St. Andrew. Some were fairly topical, some, like this one, were reflections on some bit of the Lectionary readings for a given week. This one caught my eye because it’s for the […]
The Gift of Emptiness
Receiving Your Inheritance – Sunday after the Ascension (Easter 7) Year A Acts 1:6-14 Psalm 68:1-10, 33-36 1 Peter 4:12-14, 5:6-11 John 17:1-11 We have come into a place in the cycle of the lectionary that is difficult for me to write about. The way that Jesus speaks to His disciples and to His Father […]
Receiving Your Inheritance – Proper 12, Year B
What if we actually did, receive our inheritance, that is? John 6:1-21 When Sara and I lived in Manhattan we worshiped for about two and a half years at the Church of the Holy Apostles. Sara also did a year’s “Field Education” there, so we became pretty involved for that short while. Holy Apostles’ great […]
Receiving Your Inheritance, “Unwanted” Gifts? – I Advent, Year A
Isaiah 2:1-5, Psalm 122, Romans 13:11-14, Matthew 24:36-44 I don’t know for sure, but I rather doubt that you are accustomed to receiving things that hurt as gifts, as an inheritance to be desired. Still, as I read the lessons appointed for this week, I am reminded that one of God’s greatest gifts to me […]
Receiving Your Inheritance – Flat on your face
Appointed readings in the Revised Common Lectionary for this week are: Appointed readings in the Revised Common Lectionary for this week are: 2 Samuel 1:1, 17-27 Psalm 130 or Wisdom of Solomon 1:13-15; 2:23-24 Lamentations 3:21-33 or Psalm 30 2 Corinthians 8:7-15 Mark 5:21-43 Often, the best place to receive your in heritance is flat […]
Receiving Your Inheritance – “I’m Tired.”
Isaiah 65:17-25 or Malachi 4:1-2a, Isaiah 12 or Psalm 98, II Thessalonians 3:6-13, Luke 21:5-19 Today I’m tired. I don’t want to write the truth about Receiving Your Inheritance. I want to write something that sounds like truth, but that isn’t so challenging. I’m tired today of the Gospel. My wife and I just moved […]
Receiving Your Inheritance – “Build the Temple!”
Haggai 1:15b-2:9 Dear Friends, As I read the lessons appointed for this week, I simply could not escape the vision of Haggai. Perhaps its something as simple as the fact that of all these passages, that’s the only one I haven’t preached on before, but I don’t think so. Something caught fire in me as […]
Receiving Your Inheritance – The Beatitudes
Dear Friends, More has been written on the Beatitudes than I could read in a week. There can’t be anything new to say about them, can there? Still, having read them in Luke’s Gospel, in the setting in which Luke places them, I am going to presume to say something I hope will be new […]
Receiving Your Inheritance – “Go Lower!”
One of the great dangers of the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector in Luke 18 is the likelihood that some will read it and think, “Aha! I know who those Pharisees are! I know those self-righteous folk! I’m so glad I’m not like them! I confess regularly, I suffer their offensive glances, […]
Receiving Your Inheritance – Birthing Possibility
This weekend, one of the two possible lessons appointed for the Old Testament reading is the story of Jacob, wrestling all night with the “man” prior to his confrontation with Esau. As I prayed over this passage, it became increasingly clear to me that this process of wrestling is as close as a man might […]
Receiving Your Inheritance – Receiving Him
As I did with the Hearing His Voice pieces, I’ll be trying to tie what I write to the lections for each Sunday. I find that this helps discipline me, keeps me from ranging too far into my own thinking, and keeps me listening more carefully for the Father’s word to me/us each week. This […]
Receiving Your Inheritance – Introduction
These pieces were written a number of years ago. I’m leaving them in the present tense, as trying to make them sound current is silly and dishonest. So, here they are, as they were. A couple of weeks ago the Gospel from the lectionary in Luke 14 started off with Jesus saying to His followers, […]
