Tag: Salvation
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Holy Cross Day, Yr C, 2022: The Epistle & Psalm Passages – Eyes on the cross!
“For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” (I Corinthians 1:18) It is not the two wooden boards that intersect which have power. It is that Jesus allowed himself to be hoisted up there and crucified for…
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Season after Pentecost (Proper 15 [20]): The Epistle Passage – Once again, Paul speaks forth
“I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew.” (Romans 11:1-2a) Paul, being a Jew and standing firm in that identity, does not believe God can be seen…
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Season after Pentecost (Proper 14 [19]): The Epistle Passage – Going another round with Paul
The late afternoon/early evening that I sat down to write this, it got up to 97 degrees with hotter weather for tomorrow. So what better time to sit down and wrestle more with a passage from Romans! “Moses writes concerning the righteousness that comes from the law, that “the person who does these things will…
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Season after Pentecost (Proper 13 [18]): The Psalm Passage – Petitioning the Lord God on the basis of what will be in the future
“Hear a just cause, O LORD; attend to my cry; give ear to my prayer from lips free of deceit.” (Psalm 17:1) While this psalm is being used in conjunction with the story of Jacob awaiting the morning when he will see his brother Esau for the first time in over fourteen years, I am…
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Season after Pentecost (Proper 7 [12]) : The Epistles Passage – Silly Questions & Serious Answers
“Should we continue in sin in order that grace may abound?” (Romans 6:1b) The writer of Romans (Paul) asks an absurd question to make a point. “By no means! How can we who died to sin go on living in it?” (Verse 2) And answers it by saying “me genioto” which in the ancient Greek…
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Season after Pentecost (Proper 6 [11]) : Epistle Passage – The Beginning of Faith
“Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God.” (Romans 5:1-2) Boasting – it is not something that you would expect a…
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Fifth Sunday of Lent: The Psalm Passage – Crying out and receiving hope
“Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD. Lord, hear my voice! Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications! If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities, Lord, who could stand? But there is forgiveness with you, so that you may be revered.” (Psalm 130:1 – 4) I stumble at…
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First Week of Advent: The Gospel Passage Year A – Getting ready for . . . what again?
“But about that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. For as the days of Noah were, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in…
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Season After Pentecost: The Gospel Passage – The realities of this life and the life to come, and the lessons therein
“There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man’s table; even the dogs would come and lick his sores.”…
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Season After Pentecost: The Psalms Passage – Confession moving towards forgiveness by accepting penance
“O God, the nations have come into your inheritance; they have defiled your holy temple; they have laid Jerusalem in ruins. They have given the bodies of your servants to the birds of the air for food, the flesh of your faithful to the wild animals of the earth. They have poured out their blood…
A Simple Desire 