Weaving Our Nets Together: One Service at 10:00 am this Sunday This Sunday we have our annual Ingathering Sunday, where each of us makes his or her estimate of giving to St. Paul’s Church for the coming year—but with a twist. In this coming year we are going to focus on our stories: specifically, how […]

Life and Death This week’s reading from the Gospel of Luke (20:27-38) ends with, “[Our God] is God not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all of them are alive.” What a profound statement! Following up on our commemoration of the Feast of All Saints, it speaks to the Christian understanding […]

Losers to Winners This Sunday we celebrate the Feast of All Saints, remembering those we love who have died. The readings for this year include the Beatitudes as recorded by Luke (Luke 6:20-31). Matthew, whose gospel was written after Luke’s (and used Luke as source material), provides the eight beatitudes with which we are most […]

Justification In this week’s reading from the Gospel of Luke (18:9-14), Jesus tells a parable wherein a Pharisee and a tax-collector pray. Their prayers are quite different—and, Jesus tells us, engender different responses from God: the tax-collector is justified.      Exactly what is justification? Wikipedia defines it as, “God’s righteous act of removing the guilt […]

Persistence in Faith Persistence, annoyance, stubbornness are the marks of faith in this week’s Gospel story (Luke 18:1-8) about the widow and the unjust judge.  In this parable, a widow persistently seeks help from a judge who repeatedly ignores her and sends her away.  Not to be deterred, she returns over and over again, becoming […]

Breaking Chains This week’s reading from Paul’s second letter to Timothy (2 Timothy 2:8-15) includes a phrase that really struck me: “the word of God is not chained.” What a profound observation! I imagine the power this statement has had for enslaved people through the centuries. But it is also fuel for us.      Sometimes […]

If Only… In this week’s reading from the Gospel of Luke (Luke 17:5-10) Jesus challenges the disciples: “If you had faith the size of a mustard seed…” But how often does each of us question our faith? For many of us, faith can be elusive.      What is faith, anyway? It is difficult to define. […]

Reminder – there will be ONE service only this Sunday, September 29th at 9:00 a.m. Bearers of Loving Kindness In this long, long election season, politicians are apt to talk about concern for the “middle class” who make up a substantial group of voters, and thus are of value to politicians.  Jesus is not a politician, […]

Opening our HeartsThis week we are presented with another of Jesus’ parables: The parable of the dishonest steward (Luke 16:1-13). While all of the parables are puzzles, this one is perhaps the most baffling of all. But then, questions of money are often tricky.      Perhaps the “answer” to this parable lies in allowing it […]

O Love That Will Not Let Me Go In this Sunday’s gospel (Luke 15:1-10) we get not one, but two stories about things lost and found. The parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin are told to make the same point: The love of God is outrageous.      Have you experienced the deep […]