September 11, 2022
Proper 19 C – George Yandell
There’s a certain excess in Jesus that I used to find outrageous, but increasingly now find tremendously joyful. He zaps helpless fig trees. He sleeps on the fantail of a boat in a hurricane. He feeds thousands with next to nothing. He praises a shepherd who’d ignore 99 nearsighted, beetle-brained sheep just to go after one that’s lost. He heals. He admonishes. He predicts, he indicts. He commends a poor widow who finds a lost coin and spends whatever others she has left just to celebrate. He makes one wonder whether the gospel’s not only about change, but also about small change.
And this is the son in whom God is proud and to whom God also wants us to listen? This is the one for whom we should seek in our neighbor? This is what happens when the Word becomes flesh? This is the Way, the Truth, the Life? The Christ? Well… Yes.
It’s no wonder the tax collectors and sinners were curious. The prophets were easy to ignore, but not this. They could identify with Jesus if for no other reason than his apparent profligacy, a kind of recklessness that in a way confirmed their own. And it’s no wonder the religious leaders and their minions got even stiffer necks than usual. One audience with him, and all their careful religion – school curriculum was either ready for rewrite or else down the drain.
Is there any conceivable message for us,
September 4, 2022
Proper 18C – George Yandell
I have preached from this Luke passage more than 20 times. Each time I wonder: “Did Jesus really mean his disciples must hate family and life itself or they cannot be his disciples? Did he really mean each disciple must carry her own cross, preparing to die a tortured death, to be obedient?” And in each sermon I’ve tried to offer folks some hope- lessening the severity of what Jesus said, showing other ways to understand what Jesus says. I was wrong to do so.
What Jesus offers the large crowd is not just hatred of fathers and mothers, but an example of what it means to follow God’s ways at a certain time of history. Simply put, if you’re not willing to take what is dearest to you, whether plans or people, and kiss it goodbye, you can’t be a Jesus disciple. Hatred here is meant not in a psychological sense. It means disowning, renouncing, rejecting- those who become disciples of Jesus must commit exclusively to entering God’s kingdom with Jesus. (Interesting note- Greek for “large crowd” = ‘’x’oi polloi’- sound familiar? It meant large crowd of common people, not as we hear it today- the hoy polloi, the upper-crust glommed up together.)
Jesus was, I believe, leading the way through horrible times, opening the kingdom then and there to all. Most of those around him were clinging to the patriarchal system when Rome was exploiting the way the Jews had operated for centuries- the son married and took his bride into his father’s household,
August 28, 2022
Pentecost 12 – Ted Hackett
Today’s Gospel is about getting God’s approval…
About how you qualify for the Kingdom of God because the coming
Kingdom of God was the main concern of Jesus and the early Church.
The humble man gets rewarded by getting a more prestigious seat…
There are two issues in most Gospel stories.
Humility and charity…
In these readings…these are the markers of a Christian.
Now that shouldn’t be news to any of us….
We know that for over 2,000 years Christians have been struggling to be
humble, charitable and…loving…
With very, very mixed success…
Which is why confession, repentance and forgiveness are so
important in our Christian journey…
Not new news…
But there is something else in this Gospel reading that we also find familiar…
So familiar that we may not notice…
August 21, 2022
Proper 16C – George Yandell
When I was in seminary, Professor Charlie Price remarked in a theology class that he had been phoned by a 7th Day Adventist pastor on a Saturday afternoon years before, as he was preparing his Sunday sermon. “Rev. Price,” the pastor asked him, “Why do you Episcopalians worship on Sunday? Don’t you know Saturday is the Sabbath Day?” Charlie said he stormed back at the pastor, “We worship on Sundays because it’s the Day of the Lord’s Resurrection!” and slammed down the phone. The pastor and Charlie were both right – Saturday is still the Sabbath, and we worship on Sundays because every Sunday celebrates Easter.
When I was a boy, blue laws were still in force throughout the south. Of course, blue laws were enforced on Sundays, not the Sabbath, Saturday. It meant that most of the distractions of shopping and working were stopped for a day, and our energies were focused around home or the community or the church. I miss the feeling and the results of the blue laws. I think the whole community ceasing the normal flow of work and business caused us to appreciate more the point of the other days of the week – that everything we did for those 6 days was to benefit the community and fellow citizens, not just ourselves.
Jesus taught in synagogues on the Sabbath. He performed 7 miraculous Sabbath miracles, as recounted in the gospels. Each time he healed on the Sabbath, Jesus restored the Sabbath to be a benefit for humankind against any distortions of human religious traditions. Jesus maintained that it was certainly lawful to do good on the Sabbath. It was God’s will since the beginning of creation that the Sabbath have the purpose of serving humankind,