July 20, 2025
6th Sunday after Pentecost – Proper 11, Year C – Katharine Armentrout
KEEPING THE MAIN THING THE MAIN THING
First: Let me say that when I hear this story I get really irritated – This story has become almost a cliché – You can hear people thinking: “Oh that’s just Martha, fussing away in the kitchen again… and whining to Jesus.”
It has made it easy to hear this story only as a story of a frustrated woman in the kitchen
and to ignore the important teaching of Jesus.
I think Luke could just as easily have made the story about the brothers, James and John – It would go like this:
James welcomes Jesus to his home but stays outside to finish work on a boat that Jesus will need in the morning. But his brother, John, goes inside, sits at the feet of Jesus as disciples did, and did not help James caulk the keel.
James gets frustrated and irritated that John isn’t helping with this important task for Jesus. He fusses at Jesus: “Make that lazy John help me.”
And Jesus replies:
“John has chosen the better part.”
I think when we put James and John in the story it makes it easier to hear the point Jesus is making – that we need to listen to His Word, put it in us, then do our work.
And by the way,
July 13, 2025
5th Sunday after Pentecost – Byron Tindall
I wanted to make absolutely certain I knew the definition of the word parable, so I went to the Merriam-Webster Website, and here’s what I found. “Parable – noun – a usually short fictitious story that illustrates a moral attitude or a religious principle – the Biblical parable of the Good Samaritan” Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary defines the word exactly the same.
This parable is probably one of the better-known utterances Jesus made when he was wandering around Palestine while preaching the good news about the Kingdom of God. It has been the source for countless sermons throughout the centuries.
This morning, I’m going to try something a little different. I’m going to rewrite the parable into the 21st Century. I’m not going to touch the early part of St. Luke’s lesson, just the story itself. So here goes.
In the early evening, after normal business hours, a young white, Anglo-Saxon protestant professional man was getting his exercise on the Beltline Trail in downtown Atlanta, Ga. Suddenly, he was attacked by a gang of 4 Hispanic teens. They proceeded to beat him up pretty badly and relieved him of his watch, cell phone, wallet, and the running shoes he was wearing. They left him beside the trail and ran off to examine what they had taken from the man.
An Episcopal priest was also walking on the trail and saw the injured man sitting on the bank trying to get himself back together.
July 6, 2025
4th Sunday after Pentecost – Proper 9, Year C – Bill Harkins
The Collect of the Day
O God, you have taught us to keep all your commandments by loving you and our neighbor: Grant us the grace of your Holy Spirit, that we may be devoted to you with our whole heart, and united to one another with pure affection; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Lord God Almighty, in whose Name the founders of this country won liberty for themselves and for us, and lit the torch of freedom for nations then unborn: Grant that we and all the people of this land may have grace to maintain our liberties in righteousness and peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
The Lesson: 2 Kings 5:1-14
Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Aram, was a great man and in high favor with his master, because by him the Lord had given victory to Aram. The man, though a mighty warrior, suffered from leprosy. Now the Arameans on one of their raids had taken a young girl captive from the land of Israel, and she served Naaman’s wife. She said to her mistress, “If only my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria!
June 29, 2025
Proper 8 – Katharine Armentrout
No Turning Back
This week’s Gospel reading makes clear that Jesus has not read Dale Carnegie’s “How to Win Friends and Influence People.” He doesn’t wrap his invitation to discipleship in slick or comfortable words. He doesn’t minimize the costs to attract more followers. “He doesn’t hide the hard stuff in fine print,” as one writer put it. Debi Thomas, “Journey With Jesus”, Proper 8, Year c, 2019.
In fact, it seems as if He almost pushes potential followers away: “I’ll follow you anywhere!” an eager young man says and, in response, Jesus tells him basically, “You have no idea what you will be getting yourself into.”
This week’s readings are not easy.
They challenge us and make clear that if we want a disciple’s life that is comfortable rather than costly, and stable rather than transformative, then we don’t really understand what Jesus wants from us as His disciples.
As we encounter Jesus this week in the readings, His face is set like stone for Jerusalem.
His face is set for confrontation with the powers of both church and state – the Rulers of the Synagogue and those of the Roman Empire.
He knows his life is coming to an end and that his ministry on earth will be ending too. So…He is anxious to ensure that His ministry which powerfully demonstrates God’s loving kingdom will be continued by those who come after Him.