Ordinary Time

Agents of Hope

We live in highly anxious times. That might be something of an understatement for 2020. There is so much to be understandably anxious about right now in this year. One of the side affects or outcomes of anxiety can be hopelessness. It is easy to allow anxiety to sap us of our hope. “Hope, that thing with feathers that perches in the soul,” as Emily Dickinson so beautifully put it. Hope is important to us. We need hope to keep moving forward, especially when times are so difficult. We need hope, and anxiety is the enemy of that hope.

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Love, Even in a Pandemic

As we talked about last week, Paul is writing this letter to a community that he misses immensely and desperately wants to see in person, but he can’t. So he is writing a letter using the technology of his day in order to communicate with them and to connect with them. It is not unlike what we are doing here, using the technology of our day, the video and internet, in order to connect with one another. As you read Paul’s letter you will see that it is quite clear that Paul is deeply affectioned to the people there in Thessalonica. Again, not unlike today. We are deeply affectioned to one another. I miss you immensely, I care for you deeply. This is what Paul was feeling.

Read Bingham’s entire sermon, or listen to the audio version, by clicking on “Read More.”

Offering Thanks Even in a Pandemic

For me, this year as we have been working our way through the Epistles, I have been connecting with them in a new way. I am connecting with Paul in a new way. The past month or so we have been working our way through Paul’s letter to the Phillipians, and today we move on to Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians. We will be here about a month, we’ll take one week off for All Saints Sunday, but over the next month or so we are going to make our way through Paul’s letter to this community, the church of the Thessalonians.

Read Bingham’s entire sermon for the 20th Sunday after Pentecost, or listen to the audio, by clicking on “Read more”

Forward in Faith Together

“My brothers and sisters whom I love and I long for.” I resonate like never before with these words of St. Paul that we just heard. My brothers and sisters, my siblings in Christ, you the people of St. Mary’s whom I love and I long for, I miss you. I miss being together, in person, at the church, crowded together, singing hymns, greeting one another with the sign of the peace, kneeling side by side to receive the Sacrament. I miss you.

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Stewarding God's Gifts

Most of our readings today have a common image of a vineyard. We see that in the Isaiah reading, in the Psalm, and again in the Gospel. Each of the authors of the different readings use the image a little bit differently, but fundamentally at the core of the image of the vineyard is the question of stewardship.

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For the Sake of Others: Considering the Common Good

Paul says, “Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others.” This passage, of course, is so consistent with the Gospels. It is so consistent with Jesus’s teachings on loving your neighbors as yourself, his teachings in the Beatitudes, his teachings in washing the Disciples’ feet. It resonates with his very life. Paul goes on in this passage to say that looking not to your own interests, but to the interests of others is the mind of Christ.

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