A dear friend of mine had a T-shirt which said “I thought growing old would take longer”. Anyone relate? Lately I’ve been thinking “I thought Climate Change would take longer”. But it is here and now. Just this week the United Nations Environment Program announced that the planet has already warmed roughly 1.4 degrees Celsius, mostly from the burning of fossil fuels. The last three years have been the hottest on record and since we continue to pour greenhouse gases…
May I speak in the Name of the Holy, Living, and Undivided Trinity; one God, now and forever, Amen. Good morning. There is so much in these lessons today; so many directions we could go. I think when I was just starting out as a lay preacher in the late 90s, I preached on these texts, and the verse that spoke to me was Jesus’ “take up your cross” forewarning from Matthew, because that’s where I was, theologically, at that…
Matthew 15: 10-28 Jesus called the crowd to him and said to them, “Listen and understand: it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles.” Then the disciples approached and said to him, “Do you know that the Pharisees took offense when they heard what you said?” He answered, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted. Let them alone; they are…
