Pastors Pen

Who are you…in your eyes? October 23, 2022 Scriptures: Joel 2:23-29, Luke 18:9-14 In her essay on our gospel passage titled, “Look What I’ve Done! The Pharisee and the Tax Collector”, Linda Fabian Pepe retells Luke’s story in the form of a short narrative.  I would like to share her version of our parable, for […]

The chalkboard that cannot be erased… October 16, 2022 Scriptures: Jeremiah 31:27-34, 2 Timothy 3:14-4:5, Luke 18:1-8 By now, even if you have only been here for a short time, you know how passionate I am about the words of Jesus telling his disciples that the ‘Kingdom of God was already amongst them’. A statement

Seek the welfare of ‘our city’… and give thanks October 9, 2022 Scriptures: Jeremiah 29:1, 4-7, Luke 17:11-19 Last week our first reading from the book of Lamentations was set in the time following the overthrow of Jerusalem and the forced exile of the Hebrews to Babylon. Forced to live in a strange land, separated

from ‘lament’, to…‘but this I call to mind’ October 2, 2022 Scriptures: Lamentations 1:1-6, 3:19-26, Luke 17:5-10 To be able to gain a sense of what was behind our first reading today from the book of Lamentations, we need to understand the time and circumstances from which it emerged. Jerusalem, the center of the Hebrew

If at first it is not clear…keep listening! September 25, 2022 Scriptures: Jeremiah 32:1-3a, 6-8, 1 Timothy 6:6-12         Our reading from Jeremiah today caught my eye, and my curiosity. And perhaps it is not what was actually intended by the passage, but the way I received it was that Jeremiah felt he had heard

‘…shepherds are we’ September 11, 2022 Scripture: Luke 15:1-10 Just what is today’s church? I believe that the church we are called to be, tells the story of a family gathered together, seeking to do the will of our Lord…and to do that by living and witnessing the power of God’s love in all we

‘kinfolk’ August 28, 2022 Scripture: Luke 14:1, 7-14         It so happened one day that Jesus was invited to the home of one of the leaders of the Pharisees to share a Sabbath meal.  Jesus was ostensibly invited as the guest of honor, however he surely knew before he went that he was also going

‘…her name, was Noya’ August 21, 2022 Scripture: Based very imaginatively on Luke 13:10-17 Slowly and carefully the ‘bent old woman’ picked her way over the very familiar paths towards the Temple across town.  She had left early today, partly in order to avoid the teasing and taunting of the local teenage bullies who made

…interpreting the ‘present time’ August 14, 2022 Scriptures: Isaiah 5:1-7, Luke 12:49-56 In truth, these scriptures are at best difficult, and at worst nearly impossible to fully understand, or at least to become comfortable with. To be sure, they raise some interesting questions. Such as, what is it Jesus and the writer of Isaiah were

‘daily walk’August 7, 2022 Scripture: Luke 12:35-40Today’s reading from Luke is one of those passages that seemsfairly straight forward at first. Upon closer examination however I thinkit may in fact yield much more. The language of the text however, is abit tied into conventions and customs of Jesus’ time, so it may help if weopen