Proper 10 | Ordinary Time 15 - A
David Kalas
I recall a few weeks in elementary school when it was the height of hilarity to take
someone aside and say, with contrived horror, "You know your epidermis is showing!"
For any youngster unfamiliar with the word, it was a trepidant moment. They panicked in
the double embarrassment of both this personal thing that was evidently visible and the
not knowing precisely what it was. After a few weeks, of course, the fancy term for skin
had worked its way into everyone's vocabulary, and so the value of the stunt was lost.
While the prank is ineffective among anyone beyond a certain age, the basic statement remains true. Whoever you are and virtually wherever you are, your epidermis is showing. It would be a fair first sentence in this Sunday's sermon: "Your epidermis is...
While the prank is ineffective among anyone beyond a certain age, the basic statement remains true. Whoever you are and virtually wherever you are, your epidermis is showing. It would be a fair first sentence in this Sunday's sermon: "Your epidermis is...
Wayne Brouwer
We vacationed recently on Hilton Head Island. It was a way to spend time with our daughter who is a student at the Savannah College of Art and Design nearby. One of the things that impressed us about Hilton Head Island is that if you don't live there, you don't know where things are or how to get to them. Traffic is tightly controlled, especially in residential areas. Most of the housing developments are "gated communities," with access only by way of a single entrance barred by security devices to all but the privileged owners, their guests, and those who serve their needs.
Gated communities, according to a recent article in The Wall Street Journal, are valued partly for their safety and partly for the status they connote. People can choose to live in neighborhoods...
Gated communities, according to a recent article in The Wall Street Journal, are valued partly for their safety and partly for the status they connote. People can choose to live in neighborhoods...
David Kalas
Perhaps you have a list of things at home that need to be fixed, either when you get the time and opportunity to do it yourself, or when you get the money to hire someone to do it for you. But perhaps there is another, more substantive list of things that need fixing. Beyond the dripping faucet and the squeaky door, we recognize that there are other, deeper aspects of life that might also need to be repaired.
Life in this world is filled with obstacles and impediments. So many things can get in the way of our being or doing what we most desire. Sometimes an expert in this field or that I can help us work through our issues. They help us to recognize what it is that keeps us from being more productive at work or more organized at home. They help us to identify the patterns...
Life in this world is filled with obstacles and impediments. So many things can get in the way of our being or doing what we most desire. Sometimes an expert in this field or that I can help us work through our issues. They help us to recognize what it is that keeps us from being more productive at work or more organized at home. They help us to identify the patterns...
Frank Ramirez
There are situations of inequality between us as individuals. How do we treat each other equally when we are not equals in different ways?
No question, though Jacob and Esau are twins, they’re not equals. Esau was stronger, and better equipped to live as a hunter/gatherer. Jacob may be more intelligent when it comes to being a game player, but in some ways, he is not as emotionally intelligent when it comes to treating his father and brother as real people.
Paul talks about different qualities of humanity, soma, sarx, pneuma, sometimes translated “body,” “flesh,” and “spirit.” These inequalities probably reflect different levels of spiritual intelligence.
And in the parable told by Jesus, the seed falls on different sorts of soil. For the seeds, this...
No question, though Jacob and Esau are twins, they’re not equals. Esau was stronger, and better equipped to live as a hunter/gatherer. Jacob may be more intelligent when it comes to being a game player, but in some ways, he is not as emotionally intelligent when it comes to treating his father and brother as real people.
Paul talks about different qualities of humanity, soma, sarx, pneuma, sometimes translated “body,” “flesh,” and “spirit.” These inequalities probably reflect different levels of spiritual intelligence.
And in the parable told by Jesus, the seed falls on different sorts of soil. For the seeds, this...
Wayne Brouwer
Having outgrown its old and limiting facilities, a large church finally managed to build a magnificent and sprawling ministry complex. In preparation for the dedication, the elders commissioned a noteworthy local artist to create signs at the entrance points to each ministry area using appropriate texts of scripture. He did an outstanding job.
In the foyer that gathered people as they moved into the worship space hung a large, illustrated calligraphy of Psalm 100:4 -- “Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.” Above the triple doors leading to the two-story classroom wing flew this message: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Proverbs 1:7). Emblazoned on one wall of the fellowship hall was a...
In the foyer that gathered people as they moved into the worship space hung a large, illustrated calligraphy of Psalm 100:4 -- “Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.” Above the triple doors leading to the two-story classroom wing flew this message: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Proverbs 1:7). Emblazoned on one wall of the fellowship hall was a...
Wayne Brouwer
As parents, we want to influence our children. One pastor I know moved his family seven different times. During each of the last five moves, he left one or two children behind. Now, as he retires, he's trying to figure out what' become of his family, and what impact his life has had on his children. He mourns that the center is gone. They have no place to call home.
Parents make choices that affect the manner in which their children form their identities. Harry Chapin put it well in his song "Cat's in the Cradle." When he was a young father, he was too busy making a living to take time with his son. When he was finally old enough to enjoy time with the family, his son in turn had learned to be too busy for his dad.
Of course, parents can have a positive influence...
Parents make choices that affect the manner in which their children form their identities. Harry Chapin put it well in his song "Cat's in the Cradle." When he was a young father, he was too busy making a living to take time with his son. When he was finally old enough to enjoy time with the family, his son in turn had learned to be too busy for his dad.
Of course, parents can have a positive influence...
David Kalas
Schuyler Rhodes
It's an awful phrase, you know, when you stop to think about it: "Devil's advocate." Yet how often have we heard people use it? Indeed, how often have we taken it and applied it to ourselves? "I just want to play devil's advocate," we say, and by that we mean that we want to present a contrary point of view.
Taken literally, however, that familiar figure of speech suggests a terrible prospect. The image is this: "If the devil were here, this is what I would think he would say. I want to speak in his place. I want to be an advocate for his point of view."
It's a dreadful image, and yet it is not an uncommon phenomenon. Beyond the careless use of the expression, I suspect that there are frequent occasions when a person plays the devil's part. The intent might not...
Taken literally, however, that familiar figure of speech suggests a terrible prospect. The image is this: "If the devil were here, this is what I would think he would say. I want to speak in his place. I want to be an advocate for his point of view."
It's a dreadful image, and yet it is not an uncommon phenomenon. Beyond the careless use of the expression, I suspect that there are frequent occasions when a person plays the devil's part. The intent might not...
Early in human history, people discovered that they could stir up soil, drop seeds in the stirred up soil, and cause the earth to produce edible vegetation, instead of going out searching for wild vegetation to eat. The tool that was first used to stir up the soil was probably a simple stick. But however simple it might have been, it was the first plow. Sometime in the early Bronze Age plows began to be made of soft metal. Later, cast-iron was used. And then in the eighteenth century, a device was invented that was to change the world: the moldboard plow. Instead of simply breaking up the ground, the moldboard lifts the sod and turns it over. Yet another refinement in the nineteenth century proved revolutionary: making the plow out of steel.
The steel moldboard plow opened up...
The steel moldboard plow opened up...
Perhaps the most humbling and, at the same time, thrilling moments of the liturgy occur for me when I announce the words of the absolution: "As a called and ordained minister of the Church of Christ, and by his authority, I therefore declare to you the entire forgiveness of all your sins...." To think that we are given the authority to speak the word of God that not simply describes or defines but actually effects forgiveness is almost too much to comprehend.
Perhaps what makes it so overwhelming is that words come so fast and furious in our day that we have little expectation of them. Like Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady, we can get "sick of words." We talk about the ambiguity of words, about the motives behind them, and about the tone in which they are delivered. But...
Perhaps what makes it so overwhelming is that words come so fast and furious in our day that we have little expectation of them. Like Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady, we can get "sick of words." We talk about the ambiguity of words, about the motives behind them, and about the tone in which they are delivered. But...
Although they come at it from very different perspectives, the texts for this Sunday all speak to the most common human issue -- the struggle between good and evil. Whether it is conflict in the family of Isaac and Rebekah, flesh and spirit wrestling for dominance in Paul's heart, or good seed struggling to find root in hostile soil, the idea is the same. From birth to death, in every heart and in every place, the battle goes on.
The culture of the West makes it a challenge to get this point across to our audience. Given our predisposition to believe that things can only get better if we work at them hard enough, there is a tendency to overlook or deny the reality of evil. It is hard for us to accept the idea that there may be some things beyond our control, things that defy...
The culture of the West makes it a challenge to get this point across to our audience. Given our predisposition to believe that things can only get better if we work at them hard enough, there is a tendency to overlook or deny the reality of evil. It is hard for us to accept the idea that there may be some things beyond our control, things that defy...
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