Bob Parrish Archives - Treasure Valley Prays

The Birth Events of Christmas – Part 2

Post author:Bob Parrish
Post published:January 5, 2023
Post category:Bob Parrish
Post comments:0 Comments

To resume the discussion on the birth stories, recall that I held up the two Gospel narratives found in Matthew and Luke, and encouraged you to reread them in the last few days. Hopefully, you had the time to do that.At the end of part one, I posed a series of questions. Here are my assessments of those questions and my take on the noted differences.To recap:Does this discussion alter your understanding of the Biblical texts?What might you leave in and what could…

The Birth Events of Christmas

Post author:Bob Parrish
Post published:January 2, 2023
Post category:Bob Parrish
Post comments:0 Comments

There are a whole lot of things I like about the revised Common Lectionary but the one thing that I most resist is how quickly we are forced to move away from the celebration of Christmas. The various cycles of the three years rather leave alone any recognition of the new year. They launch rather quickly into what few infant texts we have of Jesus and family, the flight to Egypt and then of Jesus appearing in the temple as a young adolescent.…

Preparing and Waiting

Post author:Bob Parrish
Post published:December 6, 2022
Post category:Bob Parrish
Post comments:0 Comments

What are we preparing for?What are we waiting for?Second Sunday of Advent - December 4, 2022Isaiah 11:1-10Matthew 3:1-12Let’s start with Isaiah. The time of this writing is supposed to be about 740 BCE. A time when there were constant threats from neighboring Assyria. The Isaiah text speaks of a person who will come to Israel and rule in a new way. It is pretty clear that Isaiah was pointing up the questionable history of kings of Israel and describing how this new person…

Christ the King Sunday

Post author:Bob Parrish
Post published:November 17, 2022
Post category:Bob Parrish
Post comments:1 Comment

November 20, 2022 Jeremiah 23:1-6 Psalm 46 (10) Colossians 1:11-20 Luke 23:33-43 We are arriving at the end of the church liturgical year. What follows is the beginning of Advent and the start of the next year. I wish to look at the person we call Jesus and the people who call him king. In some traditions this last Sunday of the church year is called Christ the King Sunday, and in others, the Reign of Christ Sunday. In still other traditions, people…

A Look at All Saints

Post author:Bob Parrish
Post published:November 7, 2022
Post category:Bob Parrish
Post comments:3 Comments

We are now late in the church year and are rapidly moving toward Advent. It seems that by late October and all of November we cannot fit in all the last of the special days, feast days and loose ends of the larger church calendar before we begin anew with Advent. We have two celebrations so close to each other that one or both might be overlooked. They are Reformation and All Saints. The precise days are not always celebrated and in many…

Welcoming the Outsider

Post author:Bob Parrish
Post published:October 3, 2022
Post category:Bob Parrish
Post comments:1 Comment

The texts for this next week include citations from Jeremiah and Luke. I want to pull from those writings two ideas that seem to be well-connected in our world today. This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that…

Give Us Our Daily Bread

Post author:Bob Parrish
Post published:August 3, 2022
Post category:Bob Parrish
Post comments:2 Comments

Will you be angry with us forever? Will you prolong your anger to all generations? (Psalm 85:5) One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.” 2 He said to them, “When you pray, say: “‘Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. 3 Give us each day our daily bread. 4 Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. And lead us…

Children of God in Christ

Post author:Bob Parrish
Post published:June 22, 2022
Post category:Bob Parrish
Post comments:2 Comments

This little gem, although well known, is hidden away in the writings of Paul; and is still timely today in the second decade of this new Century.Before the faith came, we were held prisoners by the law, locked up until faith should be revealed. So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law. You are all sons of…

Let the Celebration Continue

Post author:Bob Parrish
Post published:April 25, 2022
Post category:Bob Parrish DEVOTION
Post comments:1 Comment

We live in a time when we are bombarded with information. With that comes the competition of who might yell the loudest for our attention. Coupled with that is a demand for our attention, which may be the most recent piece of information. Often the first casualty of an event is the headline that gets written by the next news cycle. Translation: if it is not in front of us right now, it is not happening or perhaps never happened.Here then is the…

Repentance, Patience, Turning Away

Post author:Bob Parrish
Post published:March 21, 2022
Post category:Bob Parrish DEVOTION
Post comments:2 Comments

The lectionary includes: - Isaiah 55:1-9 - Psalm 63:1-8 - 1 Corinthians 10:1-13 - Luke 13:1-9 This is one of those weeks where the texts assigned are pretty easy to find the connections that the editors of the lectionary intended. Some weeks are not so obvious. The contemplative nature of Lent also offers some focus. In the third week of Lent, we are called again, as we see in most weeks, to patience and waiting. This is not aways easy for modern Americans…

Love Never Fails

Post author:Bob Parrish
Post published:January 31, 2022
Post category:Bob Parrish DEVOTION
Post comments:3 Comments

The lessons for this week are held in Luke and Corinthians. Both are well-known citations, and I will leave the Gospel text encounter of Jesus with evil to the pastors.I’m much more called to examine the Epistle text in 1 Corinthians 13: 1-13. This well-known text is Paul’s treatise on love and his conclusion that of the three components: faith, hope, and love, the greatest is love.Many people choose to use some piece of this text for the groundwork of their marriage vows.…

What Did The Shepherds See?

Post author:Bob Parrish
Post published:December 18, 2021
Post category:Bob Parrish DEVOTION
Post comments:1 Comment

In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. (Luke 2:8)The Luke account offers some interesting ideas when we consider the shepherds. They were confronted by an angel of the Lord and they are terrified. Why? Had they missed a few too many Sabbaths? Maybe it was their understanding of this God of theirs, a God of vengeance, a God of the apocalyptic of Daniel. We can be assured that they had no more insight…

Divinity and Humanity

Post author:Bob Parrish
Post published:November 8, 2021
Post category:Bob Parrish DEVOTION
Post comments:1 Comment

The text assigned for today is from John 11:32-44, where we hear of the raising of Lazarus from the dead. We are given a glimpse of both the divinity and the humanity of Jesus in this text. The humanity appears when Jesus, as we are told, was deeply moved as he came near the tomb of his friend. The divinity is pointed up as we see the relationship between Jesus and the Father. There is a tension between this humanity and divinity that…

“Good Tired”

Post author:Bob Parrish
Post published:October 11, 2021
Post category:Bob Parrish DEVOTION
Post comments:2 Comments

The Gospel assigned for this week is from Mark 10:17-31, and is one of those texts where each verse might be the topic of a complete sermon. I am going after a single portion of verse twenty-seven.This text group is often called “The Rich Young Man”. It is a conversation with a wealthy person about the nature of the Kingdom of God and what our service to others might look like.In verse 21 Jesus tells the man to sell all that he has…

Called to Action

Post author:Bob Parrish
Post published:September 20, 2021
Post category:Bob Parrish DEVOTION
Post comments:1 Comment

13 Who is wise and understanding among you? Show by your good life that your works are done with gentleness born of wisdom. 14 But if you have bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not be boastful and false to the truth. 15 Such wisdom does not come down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, devilish. 16 For where there is envy and selfish ambition, there will also be disorder and wickedness of every kind. 17 But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to…

Giving With Both Hands

Post author:Bob Parrish
Post published:August 20, 2021
Post category:Bob Parrish
Post comments:0 Comments

The texts assigned for this coming Sunday, Mark 7: 1-13 and Ephesians 5: 22-33, can be subject matter for any number of discussions individually. I would like to take a look at how they might be related in a common theme and run with that. Often these texts are hard to see how they might relate but of this Sunday they are not too tough.To summarize both, Mark deals with the Pharisee bosses challenging Jesus on what is clean and unclean, and Jesus…

The Spiritual Blessing in Christ

Post author:Bob Parrish
Post published:July 21, 2021
Post category:Bob Parrish
Post comments:1 Comment

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love. He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In…

It’s OK To Start Small

Post author:Bob Parrish
Post published:June 14, 2021
Post category:Bob Parrish
Post comments:1 Comment

He also said, “This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, thought he does not know how. All by itself the soil produces grain – first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come. Again he said, “What shall…

The Spirit Intercedes

Post author:Bob Parrish
Post published:May 21, 2021
Post category:Bob Parrish
Post comments:1 Comment

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what (other texts say or how) we ought to pray, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will. Romans 8: 26-27 (NIV) How should we pray? For what shall we pray/ These two questions seem to be most relevant…

What are we connected to?

Post author:Bob Parrish
Post published:May 4, 2021
Post category:Bob Parrish
Post comments:1 Comment

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower. 2 He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit. 3 You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. 5…

In this Easter Season:

Post author:Bob Parrish
Post published:April 17, 2021
Post category:Bob Parrish
Post comments:0 Comments

As a lifelong Lutheran, I grew up with a close connection to the Eastern Orthodox as my grandfather was Greek Orthodox. All of this was on my mom’s side of the family and my grandmother was not an adherent of the orthodox so my mom grew up in something of a tension that spilled over into my childhood; hence the Lutheran. To this day I’m still not clear how my grandparents found each other. In the mind of the orthodox, Easter is far…

What is Holy Week For You?

Post author:Bob Parrish
Post published:March 28, 2021
Post category:Bob Parrish
Post comments:1 Comment

In the church I grew up in on the West Side of Chicago, a church that worshipped about twelve hundred people on a Sunday in the mid-summer, Palm Sunday marked the ramping up to very busy week. There were twenty-four services beginning at seven in the morning of Palm Sunday and ending at one in the afternoon on Easter with six on that day alone. In my junior high days and through high school, I worked regularly at the church but for me…

Which Will It Be, Light or Dark?

Post author:Bob Parrish
Post published:March 15, 2021
Post category:Bob Parrish
Post comments:1 Comment

13 No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. 14 And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. 16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. 17 “Indeed, God did not send…

Consider the Psalms

Post author:Bob Parrish
Post published:February 22, 2021
Post category:Bob Parrish
Post comments:1 Comment

Lent is an appropriate time for reflection and self examination and there is no better place to ground our thinking than with the Psalms. This is a book that is actually made up of several books and inside each we can find songs that reflect many ways of describing our relationship with our God. There about nine major types of Psalms and most contain more than one manner of expression. For Lent however, I wish to focus on the Penitential, the Laments and…