Month: September 2019
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Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time
It’s not fall break yet, but a lot of people were travelling or nursing injuries, so our little congregation looked even littler than usual. The missing included a number of people from the choir. We could definitely have used a few more voices to make the day’s anthem sound more like music, and less like […]
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Questions for Reflection and Discussion – Numbers 14 10-20
We are studying Numbers 14:10-20 for Sunday, September 29. This is the next part of the story of the Israelites NOT entering the land right away – the part where God forgives them for not wanting to go ahead with the project. [Study notes on the text are here.] Here are a few questions about […]
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Study Notes – Numbers 14 10-20
We are studying Numbers 14:10-20 for Sunday, September 29. This continues the story we began last week, with YHWH’s response to the Israelites’ refusal to enter the land – or at least, a portion of that response! [Some questions on the text are here.] Here are my notes on the text: BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT: This […]
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Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Today in worship we ordained and installed church officers – deacons, and one elder, mostly folks who are filling out unexpired terms for people who have fallen ill or have had to resign their position due to the sudden eruption of family demands. Taking responsibility in any organization is demanding. If the organization is your […]
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Questions for Reflection and Discussion – Numbers 13 1 – 14 10
We are studying Numbers 13:1-14:10 for Sunday, September 22, focusing on Numbers 13:25-28 and 14:5-10. This is the beginning of the story of the spies, and the Israelites’ initial refusal to enter the Promised Land. [My notes on the text are here.] Here are a couple of questions about the text, which we might want […]
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Study Notes – Numbers 13 1 – 14 10
We are studying Numbers 13:1-14:10 for Sunday, September 22, focusing on Numbers 13:25-28 and 14:5-10. This is the story of Israelite spies sent to reconnoiter the Promised Land before the main body of the Israelites, and of their initial, discouraging, report, and of the minority report, and of the majority response to that dissent. The […]
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The Good Kind of Envy?
Taylor, Barbara Brown. Holy Envy: Finding God in the Faith of Others. HarperCollins, 2019. [An Installment of the “Read Me” Project.] I read an excerpt from Holy Envy in the Christian Century and thought “I’d like to read that book,” even though I didn’t agree with Barbara Brown Taylor about original sin. A couple of […]
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Heinous Abuse of the Term Ministry
The headline: “California ministry forced homeless to work, stole their benefits, officials say.” The story continues: “Church leaders arrested Tuesday are accused of holding homeless people in locked group homes and forcing them to panhandle up to nine hours a day.” The link is here. The full article is even worse. That is not ministry. […]
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Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Although I have picked up the task of typing the order of service for our Sunday morning worship, that doesn’t mean I read the bulletin ahead of time, especially if whoever is planning the service has copied-and-pasted in various blocks of text representing parts of the service. This explains how today’s prayer of confession hit […]
Matters of Interpretation 