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Time after Pentecost • Lectionary 18—July 31, 2022
Preacher: Pastor Bree Lloyd
Lessons: Hosea 11:1–11 | Psalm 107:1–9, 43 | Colossians 3:1–11 | Luke 12:13–21
Summary: Recent photos from the Webb telescope show light from billions of years ago and fill us with wonder, awe, and introspection. The Bach cantata we just heard represents inspiration from hundreds of years ago, brought to life by singers and players in this room in the form of sound waves that reach our ears and go out into the universe. In today’s Gospel, Jesus is asked to decide a dispute between brothers. His reply echoes words from an adjacent part of Luke that appear in the cantata. How can the way we look at the heavens inform out approach to the world? Jesus calls us to put aside the worries and concerns of the world and trust in God’s care for us. We have been given all we need, so we can put off the old and live in grace by putting our trust in God.
Time after Pentecost • Lectionary 17—July 24, 2022
Preacher: Pastor Phyllis Hörmann
Lessons: Hosea 1:2–10 | Psalm 85 | Colossians 2:6-15, (16–19) | Luke 11:1–13
Summary: In our Gospel, the disciples ask Jesus to teach them to pray, and he shows them with the Lord’s Prayer. Jesus begins by calling God father and ends by saying that God will bless us when we pray. I recently completed a class on spiritual direction, which is defined as the art of helping people listen to the heart of God. I began the class with feelings of inadequacy and insecurity, but as I prayed each day, reflected on the verse “Be still and know that I am God,” and heard the message of our leader that God loves and cares for each of us, these feelings subsided. Our lives are an on-going conversation with God punctuated by times of prayer. We may feel that we don’t know how to prayer, but God knows our hearts, and we can be sure that God hears our prayers.
Time after Pentecost • Lectionary 16—July 17, 2022
Preacher: Pastor Jeff Lilley
Lessons: Amos 8:1–12 | Psalm 52 | Colossians 1:15–28 | Luke 10:38–42
Summary: It is too each to read today’s familiar Gospel story of Mary and Martha as a way to classify each other. In the culture of her day, Mary was behaving unconventionally when she sat at Jesus’ feet. And we can interpret Jesus’ reply to Martha to mean that her work of hospitality is not important. But the entire book of Luke celebrates both hospitality and learning. Mary and Martha live in each of us, and both values and both sets of gifts help us know Jesus and to show Jesus to the world.
Time after Pentecost • Lectionary 15—July 10, 2022
Preacher: Pastor Jeff Lilley
Lessons: Amos 7:7–17 | Psalm 82 | Colossians 1:1–14 | Luke 10:25–37
Summary: Today’s Gospel talks about neighbors within the concept of our duty to God. We often try to shape our neighborhoods and our neighbors to fit our own needs, often to the detriment of our neighbor. Jesus wants us to set aside our fears, apathy, desires, and preferences and see our neighbors as beloved of God. We are called to take actions that make the word of God transformational so that we see God’s love and joy in our neighbors.
Time after Pentecost • Lectionary 14—July 3, 2022
Preacher: Pastor Bree Lloyd
Lessons: 2 Kings 5:1–14 | Psalm 30 | Galatians 6:1–16 | Luke 10:1–11, 16–20
Summary: In our Gospel, Jesus instructs the disciples about hospitality and compassion and then sends them out to preach and heal. It can take all of our energy to follow the instructions as we share the Good News. We feel unequal to the task, but our actions matter. We are strengthened when we remember that we are part of something bigger—the Kingdom of God.
Time after Pentecost • Lectionary 13—June 26, 2022
Preacher: Pastor Bree Lloyd
Lessons: 2 Kings 2:1–2, 6–14 | Psalm 77:1–2, 11–20 | Galatians 5:1, 13–25 | Luke 9:51–62
Summary: Transitions can be difficult. We may need to reorder priorities, and our lives may be full of both possibilities and loss. In our first reading, Elijah is called to heaven, and Elisha must take up his mantel. Commentators tell us that this story may represent a reordering of Israel’s relationship with God. In our Gospel, Jesus sets his face to the final conflict in Jerusalem, and calls his followers to step forward without delay. May we support each other as we learn to go where we must go.
Time after Pentecost • Lectionary 12—June 19, 2022
Preacher: Pastor Jeff Lilley
Lessons: 1 Kings 19:1–4, (5–7), 8-15a | Psalms 42 and 43 | Galatians 3:23–29 | Luke 8:26–39
Summary: In our second lesson, Paul writes that before faith, we were prisoners of that law, which served as our disciplinarian until Christ came. Paul goes on to say that in Christ there is no male or female, but we are all one in Christ. This one-ness does not mean that we are the same. It comes from our created-ness as children of God—in all our diversity. In our Gospel, Jesus heals the outcast and returns him to his community. The community is afraid and asks Jesus to leave, and Jesus tells the healed man to tell everyone what happened. Our broken world can seem too much for us, but Jesus tell us to testify against racism, intolerance, and misogyny. We are one in Christ, we refuse to live in hopelessness, and we remember that in baptism we are all bound to God in the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Trinity—June 12, 2022
Preacher: Pastor Jeff Lilley
Lessons: Proverbs 8:1–4, 22–31 | Psalm 8 | Romans 5:1–5 | John 16:12–15
Summary: In today’s Gospel, Jesus tells the disciples that he has many words for them that they cannot bear and that the Spirit will guide them into all truth. We see many examples of this in the gospels and in our own lives. God is still saying hard things to us, and at the same time, God enfolds us and call us to love one another as God has loved us.