Matthew 21:1-9 We read in today’s text from St. Matthew: “Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, ‘Go into the village opposite you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Loose them and bring them to Me. And if anyone says anything to you, you shall say, “The Lord…
We are all very familiar with the basic components of the story of the First Thanksgiving in New England. The year was 1621. The “Pilgrims” who had come on the Mayflower the previous year, to establish the first permanent English colony in that part of the new world – at Plymouth – had been through…
On the last day, our bodies will rise immortal from their graves: purified and purged of all sin and of all the effects of sin. We will be brought home to the Zion of God’s beauty and perfection, in the new heavens and the new earth, where righteousness dwells forever. For now we do still…
Matthew 25:31-46 A common theme in popular movies involves a villainous character who does a lot of harm to a lot of people. Good people are killed, and the evil character seems to be prevailing, until justice is, in the end, meted out to him: either by a vengeful survivor hero, a skilled martial arts…
Exodus 20:22-24; Exodus 32:1-20 Prior to the events that are described in today’s Old Testament lesson from the Book of Exodus, and prior to the time when Moses went up on Mount Sinai to receive further instruction from the Lord, God had already begun to reveal to the people of Israel how he wanted to…
Reformation Sunday – Revelation 14:6-7 “Then I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth – to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people…” This verse from the Book of Revelation – chapter 14, verse 6 – was interpreted in the earlier…
Matthew 9:1-8 In today’s Gospel from St. Matthew, we heard the story of the paralytic whose friends brought him to Jesus, with the hope that Jesus would heal him. This story also appears in the Gospels of Mark and Luke, who add the detail that the man’s friends, because of the crowds, opened up the…
James 4:1-10 Please listen with me to a reading from the fourth chapter of the Epistle of St. James, beginning at the first verse. “What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You…
1 Kings 17:17-24 We are told in the First Book of Kings – in the section of that book that immediately precedes the verses that were read as today’s Old Testament lesson – that during a time of severe drought, the Lord told the prophet Elijah: “Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and…
St. Michael and All Angels Many people are drawn to fantasy stories about epic clashes between angels and demons, in which, on a superhuman scale, the forces of good battle against the forces of evil. We might sit in amazement as we watch movies about this kind of thing. We might be deeply absorbed in…