August 7, 2022
Proper 14, Year “C”: The Rev. Frank F. Wilson
Isaiah 11, 10-20; Psalm 50: 30:1-8, 23-24; Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16, Luke 12:32-40
Believing in Advance What Only Makes Sense in Reverse
I open this morning with a little lesson in African wildlife. In particular, I speak of the African impala. It is a type of antelope, and it is an amazing animal. An African impala can jump as high as ten feet and can leap forward as far as 30 feet or more. Yet, quite interestingly, zoo keepers have discovered that a solid wall no more than three feet high can serve as a secure enclosure for impala. This is because an impala just will not jump over an obstacle if they cannot see the ground on the other side – that is to say, cannot see where their feet will land.
In other words, an impala has no faith.
Faith is a very little word. Only five little letters long. But it is a word of great significance in the lives of Christian people. After all, we sometimes even refer to ourselves as “a people of faith.” Yet faith is a word very much misunderstood by those who stand outside of the community of faith. Faith is a word, a concept, that can be difficult even for those of us who claim it as something like the epicenter of our lived lives.
The writer of the Letter to the Hebrews has a lot to say about this matter of faith.
July 31, 2022
8th Sunday After Pentecost – Ted Hackett
This morning I am going to do what I have done a couple of times before this year….
I am not going to preach directly from today’s readings…
but instead on a topic….
But it is an urgent topic.
To get into it….we have to do a bit of history.
Alexander the Great was born in Macedon in 356 BC.
He wanted to conquer the whole world and make it into one giant empire….
And by the age of 30 he had just about done it!
Alexander’s Empire included all the Mediterranean, Persia
and stretched to India.
He didn’t bother with northern Europe…it was a barbarian wilderness.
When Alexander died of battle wounds at age 32, the Empire was divvied up
among his heirs. There was frequent in-fighting among them,
but the Empire sort of hung together.
300 years later, the powerful Roman Empire took it over….
except for Persia….which became Rome’s great enemy.
July 24, 2022
Proper 12C – George Yandell
The people Jesus brought into his fellowship were young – some were likely teenagers. If you do a search on life expectancy in the Roman Empire in Jesus’ day it will tell you most people did not live much past the age of 25. John Dominic Crossan cites estimates that in Jesus’ day and place the life expectancy for most was very short. “Probably a third of live births were dead before they reached the age of six. By sixteen about 60% of those live births would have died, 75% by age 26, and 90% by age 46. Very few people reached their 60’s.” [Crossan quoted in Jesus the Village Psychiatrist, p. 62, Donald Capps, Westminster John Knox Press, 2008]
Why is that? Poverty and malnourishment made people susceptible to illness, children more so. Young children were often not regarded with affection because parents expected few children to live past infancy. They were expendable. So when Jesus speaks of loving and giving good gifts to children, he is cutting against the grain of the prevailing culture. Children growing up in Galilee were susceptible to the fears their parents tried to keep at bay. Yet the youth and young adults who walked with Jesus were already among the few survivors among their peers. They would have tasted death and the fear of death regularly, especially in the fears of their parents.
Jesus offered remarkable potential — for kids to grow strong even when their deepest fears have been triggered —
July17, 2022
6th Sunday after Pentecost – Byron Tindall
We have good examples of the rule of hospitality from ancient Israel in two of the lessons appointed for today.
The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, edited by George Buttrick, defines the rule this way. “The main practices stem from nomadic life when public inns were a rarity and every stranger a potential enemy. Hospitality was discharged more from fear and for protection than from generosity…. Moreover, the host never knew when he himself would be dependent on others. The guest was treated with respect and honor and was provided with provender for his animals, water for his feet, rest and a sumptuous feast. He enjoyed protection, even if he were an enemy, for three days and 36 hours after eating with the host…”
The lesson from Genesis concerning Abraham is a perfect example of this tradition. This incident in the life of Abraham raises at least one question for me. Why didn’t Abraham realize the importance of the three visitors when they suddenly appeared near him at the entrance of his tent? After all, he would have seen them approaching the tent long before they were near him. Abraham simply didn’t recognize who the messengers were.
This visit of Jesus to Mary and Martha is reported only in Luke’s Gospel. Luke does not name the village, but the author of the Gospel According to Saint John said that Mary and Martha were residents of Bethany.