Gracious God, take our minds and think through them; take our hands and work through them; take our hearts and set them on fire. Amen. Sometimes it’s as simple as one sentence that seems to almost make you pay attention to it. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. How many times have I read or heard this Gospel…
The Rev. Kristin Krantz Proper 18/B St. James’ Church Proverbs 22:1-2, 8-9, 22-23 9/6/15 James 2:1-10, (11-13), 14-17 Mark 7:24-37 Gracious God, take our minds and think through them; take our hands and work through them; take our hearts and set them on fire. Amen. After months of prayer, guidance from the Spirit, and planning – it is great to finally be…
Exactly eighteen months ago when I began my tenure as your Interim Rector, we all knew this day was coming. In fact, getting safely to this day, my last day with all of you, was the whole point of my being here at all. But knowing that a departure is coming doesn’t make it easier, at least not for me. The chairs…
As I said a couple of weeks ago, we don’t really know who wrote the letter to the Ephesians. It says at the beginning that it is from Paul, but most New Testament scholars, in studying the content, have decided that is unlikely. And we don’t really know to whom the letter was written. The…
You might, if you are the sort of person who likes the world to be orderly, have noticed that something has changed in the service this week. For most of the year we have been reading from Mark’s gospel – more or less in order when the festival seasons don’t demand something else, but here we are, on an ordinary Sunday, reading…
It is tempting, this Sunday, to skip the disturbing gospel lesson and the bizarre rhetoric of Paul’s letter to the Corinthians and focus on the simple story of the establishment of David as king over all of Israel and Judah in the first reading. There are resonances between David’s choice of Jerusalem as his…
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20) Before I say anything,…
Not only do we have two healing miracles in today’s gospel lesson, the stories are actually nested one within the other. Jesus is on his way to help one person in need when he gets interrupted by another one. And these are the last two of a group of three healing miracles in Mark’s gospel. Immediately before today’s lesson is not…