Gospel

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Love Over All Else

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So what do we make of Jesus saying to hate anyone, let alone your family? Let’s take a step back from this reading for a moment and look at it in its bigger context. Jesus, as that moment in time, is moving towards Jerusalem where he is going to be crucified. He knows that. He’s talking about that, although no one else understands what he is talking about. And as he goes toward Jerusalem he is teaching, he is healing, he is acting in love, and he is getting pushback. He doesn’t get much pushback for the words about love, but he does when he performs actions in love, like when he tries to heal someone on the Sabbath.

Listen to or read BIngham’s full sermon by clicking “Read More.”

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Reading Scripture Like Jesus

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You see that very clearly whenever Jesus engages with scripture, he is engaged in questions of interpretation. My favorite story of Jesus interpreting scripture is the time that the Disciples were picking grain on the Sabbath. Jesus is criticized for his Disciples working on the Sabbath, which seems to be a clear violation of the rules, the laws of scripture. But Jesus has a different interpretation. It is definitely not plain meaning. It is a creative and playful engagement with scripture. While the critics are talking about the Sabbath, Jesus says do you remember the story about David?

To hear or read Bingham’s entire sermon for the 23rd Sunday after Pentecost, click “Read More.”

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You Are the Light

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In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and there was darkness over the deep. And God spoke and said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. And God saw the light was good. From that moment on, the light coming from God has never failed to shine in the darkness of this world. The creation story tells us that God created two great lights: the greater light for the day, and the lesser light for the night, the sun and the moon, a powerful reminder that even in the darkness of night there is still a light that God has provided for us. As we look back on history and the ways God has been working in this world, we see God has continued to shine light in the midst of our darkness.

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Listening for God's Call

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The theme from the lessons today is about call. We heard from Isaiah, “Heads up. Listen up. God called me when I was in the womb, and He named me.” From the First Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians, “Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God.” The Gospel is St. John’s account of the call of the first close followers of Jesus. Two of St. John the Baptist’s close followers peel off and go and follow Jesus. One of them is St. Andrew, who then goes and recruits his brother, Cephus—Peter. The stories are about different calls and different ways to be called.

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