Prepositions are important in the Book of Common Prayer (BCP). One change in the BCP 2019 that can easily go unnoticed is the designation of Sundays “of Epiphany” in the new book compared with Sundays “after Epiphany” or “after the Epiphany” in earlier books. So we might ask, what does the new title communicate? One…
The Liturgical Home: Shrove Tuesday
It’s time for Shrove Tuesday, also called Pancake Day, Mardi Gras, and Carnival. And I’m excited, not only because we will eat pancakes but also because it means we are only a day away from Lent, my favorite season of the year! The End of the Carnival The word Carnival comes from the Latin expression,…
Today in the Spirit: Last Sunday of Epiphany A
On the Last Sunday of Epiphany every year we contemplate the Transfiguration of Jesus Christ. In this season of celebrating the marketing prowess of the Father God revealing the glory of the Son in the world, the various accounts of the Transfiguration in the Gospels form a bookend for the worshiper with the accounts of…
Today in the Spirit: Epiphany World Mission Sunday A
The Book of Common Prayer 2019 has designated the second to last Sunday of Epiphany every year to be World Mission Sunday. This accomplishes two important things: 1) it causes us who spend most our time and energy following Jesus in one locality among a small circle of people to lift our eyes over the…
Today in the Spirit: Epiphany 5A
At the end of the Beatitudes we heard last Sunday, Jesus makes a dramatic shift from the third person Blessed are those to the second person Blessed are you, and there he stays throughout the remainder of the Sermon on the Mount. In Epiphany 5A we hear in the assigned Gospel reading Matthew 5:13-20 You…
Today in the Spirit: Epiphany 4A
As noted before, through Year A of the Sunday lectionary we work our way through selections of the Gospel of Matthew. Beginning in Epiphany 4A, the church will focus our attention on the Scripture’s illumination of Jesus as Son of God in the Sermon on the Mount, the first and largest of five teaching discourses…
Today in the Spirit: Epiphany 3A
On Epiphany 3, from the church’s selection of Sunday Gospel readings we are meant to see how the glory of Jesus Christ was revealed in the earliest events of his ministry in Galilee (northern Palestine). This year out of Matthew there is a dual focus on Jesus’ preaching in Capernaum and the calling of his…
Today in the Spirit: Epiphany 2A
At Epiphany 2, we move into the first of two “ordinary” periods (as opposed to extraordinary periods of feasting or penitence) in the church year. The shorter ordinary period begins after Epiphany Day; the longer one after the Day of Pentecost. In the Sunday lectionary ordinary time is marked by a more systematic (though not…
Today in the Spirit: Epiphany & Epiphany 1A
Prepositions are important in the Book of Common Prayer (BCP). One change in the BCP 2019 that can easily go unnoticed is the designation “Sundays of Epiphany” in the new book versus “Sundays after Epiphany” in the 1979 (and 1928) books. The choice of wording in BCP 2019 conforms with a desire to return to…
10 Ways to Preach the Baptism of our Lord
In 2016, I led a tour of 30 adults through the Holy Land, and one of our stops was the newly renovated site on the Jordan River, commemorating John the Baptist’s baptism of our Lord. I led our group in the renewal of vows, sprinkling and praying over 29 of the 30 pilgrims. Then, one…
