November 30, 2025
1st week of Advent, Year A – Mark Winward
When I was a teenager, my very first job was painting picket fences in an ancient cemetery with the remains of those who had gone on to glory almost 400 years ago. During my breaks, I became fascinated by epitaphs—those final words etched into stone to summarize a life. A common 17th century epitaph ominously warned:
“Stranger, pause as you pass by; as you are now, so once was I. As I am now, soon you will be; prepare to die and follow me.”
Not all epitaphs are that dour. In Ribbesford, England, one reads:
“The children of Israel wanted bread, and the Lord sent them manna; old clerk Wallace wanted a wife, and the Devil sent him Anna.”
On a more serious note, one doctor buried in our cemetery left behind these inspiring words:
“If you could see where I have stepped, you would wonder why you wept.”
But one of the most striking of all is found in rural Louisiana. A woman lies buried beneath a 150-year-old live oak tree, and in keeping with her instructions, only a single word is carved into her headstone:
“Waiting.”
That one word summarizes the theme that binds today’s readings—waiting to meet the Lord.
As we enter the season of Advent in preparation for Christmas, our lectionary readings continue this theme.
November 9, 2025
27th Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 27/C Veterans’ Sunday – Mark S. Winward
Hope Beyond the Battlefields of This World
Introduction
Today’s Gospel recalls the exchange between Jesus and the Sadducees—a conversation about life beyond this world, about what endures when all else is lost. The Sadducees, who denied the resurrection, posed a question about marriage to ridicule belief in life after death. But Jesus’ reply revealed a deeper truth: that the life of the world to come is of a different order entirely—one that transcends the limitations and pain of this world.
It is fitting that this Sunday’s lectionary readings fall close to Veterans Day, or Remembrance Day as it is known elsewhere, marking the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month when the guns of the Great War fell silent in 1918. On Veterans Day we remember those who gave “the last full measure of devotion,” and this morning we bring their stories to the foot of the cross, where death is defeated and hope takes root.
The Reality of This World
The Great War took a staggering toll—ten million dead, nearly forty million wounded or missing. Humanity had advanced the science of destruction but not yet the compassion of healing. On the battlefields of Flanders, red poppies bloomed among the graves, and they became the enduring sign of remembrance—a fragile reminder of a shattered world.
Job knew something of that desolation.
October 26, 2025
Proper 25 – Katharine Armentrout
The Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector
This morning Jesus is talking to “some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous”.
And he tells us this familiar parable about the self-righteous Pharisee who recites all his good deeds to God and makes clear that he is not like other sinners and certainly not like that tax collector over there.
One writer said the Pharisee’s recitation was like a “personal progress report or, to use a new phrase, it is a “humble brag!”
And the Pharisee’s recitation reminded me of that old country song by Mac Davis: “Oh Lord it is hard to be humble when you are perfect in every way.”
But.. the fact is that he does fast more than required under Jewish Law and he does pay more tithes than are required.
And, he assures those who listen, that he isn’t like “ other people” – those thieves, rogues, adulterers, and certainly not like the Tax Collector over there. ,
But… the problem with his prayer is that it really isn’t a prayer as you and I might think of one.
A prayer is ordinarily addressed to God with a heart-felt request or a deep offer of thanks for God’s blessings.Instead he recites proudly his righteous deeds, using the first person pronoun “I” five times in just a few sentences.
October 19, 2025
Sara Miller-Schulte
Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart.
He said, “In a certain city there was a widow who kept coming to the judge and saying, ‘Grant me justice against my opponent.’ And for a while he refused; but later he said to himself, ‘You know, because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice.”
And Jesus said, “Will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night?”
And we who have itching ears make this into a story about how God will give us what we want if we just pray until something happens.
But God is not the unjust judge.
The Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says:
He says, ‘Though I have no fear of God — that’s a clue — and no respect for anyone, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice.”
Justice is easy.
In fact, in granting the widow justice, the judge is making a ruling on her case; He is doing his job.
He is doing the barest minimum of what one might be moved to call a good work. So in describing this judge, Jesus is not saying something about God — he is saying something about us.
Earlier in Luke’s gospel, Jesus says, “Is there anyone among you who,