11182020 – Matthew 25. 14-30 In the first century, a TALENT was the LARGEST unit of currency AVAILABLE at the time. For us, it is the 100 dollar bill. Yep, a “talent was money.” A whole lot of money. Cool, hard cash! Some scholars guess or try to speculate that a talent would have […]
11112020 – Matthew 25 1. 1-13 It’s a GOOD parable… It has a good MESSAGE… It almost seems to be like a “WISDOM writing.” But it all depends upon, HOW SERIOUSLY WE take its message. It teaches NOT EVERYTHING can be BORROWED. It teaches not everything can always be PUT OFF. We miss […]
11072020 – Matthew 25. 1-13 The Parable of the “WISE and FOOLISH Virgins,” has to do with the activities LEADING-UP-TO a typical Jewish wedding in Jesus’ day. This particular story is ONLY TO BE FOUND in the gospel of Matthew. It is just ANOTHER ONE of the countless stories that Jesus told, […]
11042020a – Matthew 5. 1-12 Each and every year – All Saints Day falls on November 1st. BUT it is considered to be “a moveable feast date” on the church calendar, so if it does not fall on a Sunday, then, it is celebrated on the next closest Sunday. Historically, All Saints Day began as a commemoration of […]
11012020 – Matthew 5. 1-12 I do not have a long history. It is actually “a rather short piece of history.” About 1/5 of their lives. Just a glimpse really… I have looked in… I have seen, I have noticed… I have observed and watched… I have listened… NO, NOT A STALKER mind you…but their […]
11012020 – Matthew 5. 1-12 More radical stuff, coming from Jesus… From his lips to our ears… Get ready, because it is AIMED at ALL of us. No place to run. No place to hide. No place to disappear to. Blessed are the poor in spirit, those who mourn, and those who are meek. Blessed […]
10312020 – Matthew 5. 1-12 All Hallow’s Eve Today is exciting on many different levels, for us, who call this place home, today celebrates our “namesake.” Yay! All Saints, our home. All Saints, our family. All Saints, prayerfully-our-place-of respite. All Saints, our day. “Only at All Saints!” But as you know, we also gather on […]
10282020 – John 8. 31-36 All this talk of “slavery” and of “being a slave” does not go over well today… It’s time has more than come…we have all these twenty-first-century sensitivities…to deal with… It’s awkward, it really is… In this rather “sometimes” – “enlightened age of ours,” language can easily […]
10242020 – John 8. 31-36 As Lutherans, we know “a little something-something” about Martin Luther. And of course, some of us know “more than others…” Luther’s father Hans, prospered in “the local copper-refining business” and was a councilor for the town of Mansfeld, Germany. We know Luther was very smart and highly intelligent…and excelled in […]
10212020 – Matthew 22. 15-22 Remember the Roadrunner and the Coyote? Meep, meep…and he was gone just like grease lightning…leaving old Wiley E. in his dust… That poor old coyote tried dynamite, TNT explosives and charges, dropping boulders from on high, everything he could think of… He even tried his hand at painting murals on […]