Psalm 39:4-5, 7-8 People have always been interested in knowing when the end of the world will come, and when judgment day will be upon us. During the Middle Ages, the approaching end of the first Christian millennium, around the year 1000 A.D., aroused a high level of apocalyptic expectation. In the sixteenth century, the…
Mark 13:28-37 Please listen with me to a reading from the 13th chapter of the Gospel according to St. Mark, beginning at the 28th verse: “From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves, you know that summer is near. So also, when you see…
Mark 5:21-43 Today’s Gospel from St. Matthew gives us an abbreviated version of the story of the healing of the woman with a flow of blood. St. Mark gives us a fuller version of this story. We read there that “There was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, and…
(There is no Video this week. It has no sound, you can view it here on our Facebook page) Romans 14:8-9 “For all the saints, Who from their labors rest, Who Thee, by faith, Before the world confessed, Thy name, O Jesus, Be forever blessed.” “O blest communion, fellowship divine, We feebly struggle, they in…
John 8:31-36 During the middle ages, in the centuries before the Reformation, the institutions of the church slipped more and more into a theology that was largely oriented around the status and presumed power of the ordained clergy. So, for example, the marks of the church were, basically, the clergy. A medieval Christian was expected…
In the 14th chapter of the Gospel according to St. John, Jesus says this to his disciples: “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” No normal person enjoys conflict. But…
Genesis 1:1–2:4 Today’s Old Testament reading presented us with the creation account from the Book of Genesis. It is real history, written in majestic prose, by divine inspiration. The Book of Genesis is not written in the vocabulary of modern science, because it is a story for the ages. It was true and meaningful before…
Matthew 21:33-44 Many of Jesus’ messages had an immediately positive and uplifting impact on his listeners. Today’s message, from St. Matthew’s Gospel, is not one of those. There are some humbling and hard-to-accept truths associated with sinful humanity’s existence in this fallen world, and associated with sinful humanity’s alienation from a holy God, that Jesus…