This Sunday that lands in Michaeltide this year does include texts that reinforce the twin themes emphases for this subseason. They are, as many of you have heard repeated, endurance in the Faith of Christ, and Holy Baptism. Today’s Psalm can serve to remind us of those themes with words like these:
From (the) mouth of babes and sucking ones You have built strength because of Your foe, to cause to stop the enemy and adversary.
For more, click on the title above.
Author: kyriss
The wedding garment
Hear again the Word of the Lord which commends itself to us today,
“for many are called ones, but few are elect.”
Jesus pronounces this statement to conclude the parable that you just heard read. It is a hard saying. It is made more so by virtue of the vehicle of delivery, a parable, in a series of parables. Many questions arise as we consider the Gospel reading. The broadest is, what does Jesus mean? Others follow: Who are the many? Who are the elect? Who is Jesus addressing?….For more, click on the title above.
Repenting and living the baptized life
The theme for this 19th Sunday after Trinity that focuses us upon our enduring in the Faith God gives through the water and Word is this:
Believers in Christ endure in the Faith as they continue repenting and
living the baptized life under God’s forgiveness….For more, click on the title above.
The Righteous Man
This time of year traditionally starts with the Feast of St. Michael and All Angels. That was celebrated among us this past Wednesday. This year, to help us keep to the old pattern that guides the weeks of the Trinity Season, in order to give us enough weeks in Michaeltide, last Sunday we inaugurated this fourth section of the Trinity season. Today a different green is in the chancel.
That green, a take on olive drab, reminds us that we are still in the time to remember the growth and new life we have in Christ in the Church. This division of the Trinity Sunday readings emphasizes endurance in the Faith. …For more, click on the title above.
God’s Son who is eternally begotten for you
This week provides another opportunity this year to hear Psalm 2 as part of the Lord’s Services to us. In this place, its divinely inspired words that declare the Christ may be heard each Christmas Day, at the Transfiguration of our Lord, on Easter Tuesday, today, and during the minor Feast of St. Joseph. Psalm 2 continues to be proclaimed among us primarily because it is a thoroughly Christological text. That means that Psalm 2 declares Christ Jesus as King of kings!…For more, click on the title above.
Resurrection, Absolution and sanctification
One of these early Christian sermons reflecting on our readings remarks on today’s theme saying, “The Lord has visited His people, not only once by the Incarnation of His Word, but by sending It at all times into our hearts.” That is exactly what is happening for you today. Today, we have two of the seven resurrections prior to Christ’s in our readings to bring to our remembrance what God promises to do for you….For more, click on the title above.
Right with God? See Jesus for the answer
Who is your master?
Our selected verse upon which we will meditate this day reads as follows: “Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord his God.”
Another translation of that passage changes the first word from “blessed” to “happy.” You can see that on the bulletin cover.
Happy is he whose help and hope is the God of Jacob. I like that translation because our Gospel text for today kind of explores the opposite of choosing the God of Jacob—the one in whom we put our trust—to be our Master….For more, click on the title above.
Led by the Spirit
From the ear to the heart, to the lips, to the life
The Word of the Lord in the Psalm section appointed for today begins with a question. That begins to be answered by in the same verse. The answer then continues through the following seven verses.
Today’s eight psalm lines reveal how beautiful, wonderful, beneficial, and important it is to meditate upon God’s Word. They proclaim that is done as faithful people audibly declare His Word. As many of us have heard here over the decades, God’s Word is not meant to be read silently. It is to be spoken, chanted, or sung that it might enter into the ears of speakers and hearers alike….For more, click on the title above.