Category: readings

From the Facebook Feed of ElectionDayCommunion2016.com Philippians 3:17-4:1Luke 16:1-8 The master commended the dishonest steward for his shrewdness.Luke 16:8a Do you find this passage confusing? It’s one that usually stumps me when it comes up in the lectionary. Here’s my go for this year: If this is a parable of the Kingdom, then the Rich…

Philippians 3:3-8aLuke 15:1-10Rejoice with me, because I have found my…Luke 15:6 or 9 Jesus tells us two parables saying, Look, some things are very important to God and he shows us in two ways: the lost coin and the lost sheep. The coin we understand, I think: If I only have 100 pennies and one…

Wisdom 3:1-9Romans 5:5-11John 6:37-40 God hath tried them, and found them worthy of himself. As gold in the furnace he hath proved them, and as a victim of a holocaust he hath received them, and in time there shall be respect had to them.Wisdom 3:5b-6 All Souls Day: the day we set aside for these…

Revelation 7:2-4, 9-14I John 3:1-3Matthew 5:1-12a For so they persecuted the prophets that were before you.Matthew 5:12b The Eastern Rite (both Orthodox and Byzantine Catholic) sings this Gospel passage – the Beatitudes – every week at Liturgy (at least in the Slavic traditions). That singing does not include the second part of verse 12. That…

Philippians 2:1-4Luke 14:12-14When thou makest a dinner or a supper, call not thy friends nor thy brethren nor thy kinsmen nor thy neighbours who are rich; lest perhaps they also invite thee again, and a recompense be made to thee. But when thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame and the…

Wisdom 11:22-12:2II Thessalonians 1:11-2:2Luke 19:1-10 And therefore thou chastisest them that err, by little and little: and admonishest them, and speakest to them, concerning the things wherein they offend: that leaving their wickedness, they may believe in thee, O Lord.Wisdom 12:1-2 Yayas see everything. Everything. One of the things I was taught in Orthodoxy was…

Philippians 1:18-26 Luke 14:1, 7-11 …to live is Christ: and to die is gain…  Philippians 1:21b A few years ago I had a sleep-study done.  I can snore enough to wake the dead, see. And it was bothering my housemates and, in fact, it was bothering the people upstairs. So… I had a sleep study.…

Ephesians 2:19-22Luke 6:12-16 So then you are no longer strangers and sojourners…Ephesians 2:19a I move a lot. At fifty-plus, I’ve still never been in the same place for more than 4 Christmases. It’s not like I don’t try: but life in the lower-middle class (or upper lower-class, whatever) is lived from paycheck to paycheck. My…

Ephesians 6:10-20Luke 13:31-35 For we are not contending against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.Ephesians 6:12 The readings from Paul’s letter to the Ephesians this week have seemed to confirm a lot of…

Ephesians 6:1-9Luke 13:22-30 Slaves, be obedient to those who are your earthly masters, with fear and trembling, in singleness of heart, as to Christ.Ephesians 6:5 This is one of those hard places in the Church’s tradition. In fact this whole chapter from Ephesians is – yesterday I totally ignored the obvious “Wives submit yourselves to…

Ephesians 5:21-33Luke 13:18-21 The Kingdom of God is like leaven which a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, till it was all leavened.Luke 13:21 I heard a preacher once get this horribly wrong. I knew he wasn’t a baker as a result of hearing his take on this. He pointed out that…

Ephesians 4:32- 5:8Luke 13:10-17 Let there be no filthiness, nor silly talk, nor levity, which are not fitting; but instead let there be thanksgiving.Ephesians 5:4 This is so very hard for me. Moving away from the secular world into the Christian one, one realizes how much of modern, secular culture is predicated on sexual content.…