We all know that sense of heightened desire that accompanies the arrival of a big day, like a wedding day or the first day of a new job. A moment of transition is at hand, and, like a child waiting for, well, Christmas, we feel more intensely that combined force of eagerness from not yet…
Today in the Spirit: Advent 3A (Gaudete)
In all three years of our Sunday lectionary, Advent 3 is also “The Baptist” 2. After reacquainting us with the character and preaching of John the Baptist in Advent 2, the church assigns a collect and readings to take us deeper into consideration of the power of biblical prophecy in general and John’s role, in…
Today in the Spirit: Advent 2A
On the second and third Sundays of Advent, our attention is drawn to the NT Gospel accounts of John the Baptist’s ministry. So, the church abruptly shifts our adoration from the contemplation of Jesus’ second coming to his first. Like many good films that give their audience the end before the beginning, we wonder, as…
Today in the Spirit: Advent 1A
The first Advent Sunday marks the arrival of a new year in the life of the liturgical church. While there is little fanfare to celebrate that fact, we find the church, after the slow drip of nourishment in the Pentecost season, urgently inviting us, as worshipers, to take stock of our lives in view of…
Today in the Spirit: Proper 29C (Christ the King)
The feast of Christ the King is the Church’s celebration of Jesus Christ’s kingship over all things, earthly and heavenly. Though many Anglican provinces around the world have unofficially celebrated the feast for a century, the only official Prayer Book designation I could find of the final Sunday of Pentecost as “Christ the King” is…
Today in the Spirit: Proper 28C
At Proper 28, two weeks before First Advent and our meditation in worship on Jesus’ second coming, the church appoints readings in the Gospels from what is often called the synoptic apocalypse, the record of Jesus’ teaching on events which will occur before the parousia (the second coming), which appears in parallel form in Matthew,…
Today in the Spirit: Proper 27C
At Proper 27, the Sunday lectionary shifts to pre-Advent mode, concentrating on eschatological (end times) themes. The assigned Gospel reading in Year C, Luke 20:27-38, is Luke’s version of the dialogue between Jesus and the Sadducees over marriage and the resurrection. The priestly power brokers of Jerusalem, who don’t believe in the resurrection from the…
Today in the Spirit: All Saints’ Sunday
All Saints’ Day, celebrated on 1 November every year, is the only “Principal Feast” in the Christian Year which can also be observed on the Sunday following that date. It is a commemoration of the intercommunion of living and dead Christians throughout time, those renowned and unknown. Traditionally, the Gospel reading assigned for All Saints’…
Today in the Spirit: Proper 25C
At Proper 25C, the church assigns as a Gospel reading the parable immediately following the one from last week in Luke. In Luke 18:9-14, Jesus tells a tale of two men, one a respected religious leader (a Pharisee) and the other a reviled “sinner” (a tax collector), both praying in the temple in plain sight…
Today in the Spirit: Proper 24C
At Proper 24C, the Church assigns another parable of Jesus for the benefit of his disciples, found only in Luke. Luke 18:1-8 is the parable of the persistent widow. Our Lord tells a short story of a woman stalking an unjust judge to insist that he give her justice in a case against an adversary….
