Mercy and Repentance

Lectionary Readings for September 11, 2023The lectionary readings for this Sunday, September 11, show how repentance is the bridge we must travel from our sinfulness to God’s mercy. These themes are explored in four different contexts, starting with a story of God’s wrath and ending with a story of God’s infinite patience and love.The first reading is Exodus 32:7-14. Moses and God are communing on the holy mountain while Moses’ people, feeling abandoned because Moses has been away from them too long, make…

Continue ReadingMercy and Repentance

Seasons of Salvation

How can I escape your Spirit? Or flee your Presence? If I ascend to the heavens, You are there: if I make my bed with the dead, behold, You are there, too! If I fly on the morning’s wings, and find the ends of the sea, You will guide me and your right hand will cradle me. If I were to say, “if only the darkness could cover me, and the light about me could be like the night.”—even the darkness would not…

Continue ReadingSeasons of Salvation

The Show is About to Begin

You know what time it is, it is time that you awake out of sleep because salvation is coming near to us...the night is far spent, and the shining day is at hand. Therefore, cast off the works of darkness and prepare yourself to put on the armor of light, prepare yourselves in hope. (Romans 13: 10-12)Imagine you are in a seat in a theater, waiting for the show to begin. The houselights go off and the footlights go on, the conductor raises…

Continue ReadingThe Show is About to Begin

Keep the Faith

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. 1 Peter 1:3This verse is from the second reading scheduled for this week you would have heard in church. The full reading scheduled is 1 Peter 1:3-9 (NRSV). The reading continues:...and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who are being…

Continue ReadingKeep the Faith