Love God. Love Others. Everything Else Takes Care of Itself.

Twenty-first Sunday after Pentecost – Proper 25 (Year A)

Matthew 22.34-46

St. Gregory’s, Long Beach

Live Streamed on Parish Facebook Page (beginning at 13:15)

 

The temple authorities are at it again. Setting up yet another test for Jesus. Another hoop for him to jump through in their attempt to prove that he is a heretic. In today’s Gospel we hear the third and final in a series of such tests. The first, which we heard last week, was devised by the Pharisees in league with the Herodians: “Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?” (Mt 22.17). Then, in a section that our lectionary skips over, the Sadducees, who don’t believe in resurrection, ask Jesus a ridiculous question about marriage in the afterlife—the one about one bride for seven brothers. And then today, the Pharisees are back with “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” (Mt 22.36).

Read more!

Whose Image?

Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost – Proper 24 (Year A)

Matthew 22.15-22

St. Gregory’s, Long Beach

Live Streamed on Parish Facebook Page (beginning at 13:20)

 

Today’s Gospel reading finds Jesus between the proverbial rock and a hard place. Now, he’s been in sticky situations before. In fact, this whole section of Matthew’s Gospel finds Jesus in one sticky situation after another in his dealings with the temple authorities. Just to set the stage, at this point in the Gospel According to Matthew, Jesus is in Jerusalem mere days before his arrest, trial, and crucifixion. He had his triumphal entry just the day before and immediately went to the temple, where he proceeded to disrupt things by overturning the tables of the money changers and driving out those selling their goods in the temple complex. The next day, he returns to the temple to get into, or rather cause, what the late John Lewis called “Good Trouble.” He confronts the temple authorities and tells one parable after another that are clearly meant to condemn said authorities. The Pharisees are fed up, so they “went and plotted to entrap Jesus in what he said” (Mt 22.15). Only this time, they bring in reinforcements: the Herodians.

Read more!

Keep Calm and Carry On

Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost – Proper 23 (Year A)

Exodus 32.1-14; Matthew 22.1-14

St. Gregory’s, Long Beach

Live Streamed on Parish Facebook Page (beginning at 16:00)

 

I’m sure most of us have seen signs and memes that say “Keep Calm and . . .” something or other. Keep Calm and Drink Tea. Keep Calm and Go Shopping. Keep Calm and Eat Bacon. You know what I’m talking about. Well, all of this stems from the original “Keep Calm and Carry On,” which was part of a series of signs created by the British Ministry of Information in 1939 to “rally and reassure [the] populace as World War II ramped up.”[1] Perhaps the Hebrews wandering in the wilderness following their escape from Egypt could have used some of those signs.

Read more!

Claiming a New Identity

Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost – Proper 22 (Year A)

Philippians 3.4b-14

St. Gregory’s, Long Beach

Live Streamed on Parish Facebook Page (beginning at 14:40)

 

I have to chuckle when I read the opening verses of today’s Epistle reading. In his letter to the Philippians, Paul writes, “If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless” (Phil 3.4b-6).

Read more!