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From Division, Unity
The Last Sunday after Pentecost: Matthew 25:31-46 We all know the parable about the sheep and the goats. The easy reading of this parable is that it has to do with division—sheep/goats, left/right—and eschatology—how time is completed/the end times. It clearly looks like that. But I don’t buy it. And neither should you. The context…
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The wedding is the red herring
a Sermon for Proper 23A Text: Matthew 22:1-14 Give it up for weddings Raise your hand if you like weddings. All those happy people, the good food, a pervasive spirit of hope. Everybody dressed in their finest. The two, whose binding together we gather to support and cheer have never looked so beautiful and powerful. …
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Responsibility without possession
Proper 22A Text: Matthew 21:33-46 Like last week, the lectionary has us dealing with some pretty tough stuff. It should come as no surprise since this all takes place during Jesus’s final week. Jesus has entered Jerusalem in a mock triumphal entry with his merry band of misfits and enormous crowd of followers. The group…
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Learning to change from the prodigal sons
In the parable of the lost son(s), Jesus tells of a son that must go out and experience the world, forsaking his father and wasting his inheritance. After the young man hits rock bottom, he comes back home humiliated and hoping to work in the stable as one of his father’s workers. But to our…