The Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany: Matthew 5:13-20 I got thinking about the first time I watched Alfred Hitchcock’s film Psycho. (Yes, that’s how my mind works apparently, after reading the Sermon on the Mount. But please stick with me.) First I banged on the TV, because the colours weren’t working; it was all black […]
Continue Reading: Psycho and the Beatitudes: The Sermon on the Mount as MacGuffin: Sunday, February 5, 2023Category Archives: Matthew Kieswetter
The Third Sunday after Epiphany The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity Isaiah 9:1-4 1 Corinthians 1:10-18 Matthew 4:12-23 Bookended between two big feasts of the Church calendar — the Confession of St. Peter and the Conversion of St. Paul — comes The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. It’s existed within one Church body […]
Continue Reading: Washing Each Other’s Dishes (for Christian Unity): Sunday, January 22, 2023The Second Sunday after the Epiphany: John 1:29-42 In maybe an unsaid New Year’s resolution, Leslie and I have been trying to read more, and specifically, read the books filling our shelves at home. So I’m finally getting to comedian Jerry Seinfeld’s 1993 book, SeinLanguage. And in the opening pages he talks about bookstores as […]
Continue Reading: See, Stay, Believe: Sunday, January 15, 2023The Baptism of the Lord: Isaiah 42:1-9 Acts 10:34-43 Matthew 3:13-17 This coming season the Stratford Festival is putting on “A Wrinkle in Time,” based on the story by the 20th century author Madeleine L’Engle. I know that a few people from the congregation will be seeing it this summer, because it was a part […]
Continue Reading: “He did not wait…”: Sunday, January 8, 2023A joint Anglican-Lutheran service of Christmas lessons and carols “Greetings favoured one… Do not be afraid, Mary…” It’s one of the great scenes of the Advent-Christmas cycle: the Annunciation. “Do not be afraid,” we hear sometimes, is one of the most (if not the most) repeated exclamations in scripture. And Mary, there at the beginning […]
Continue Reading: In the Bleak Midwinter: Sunday, January 1, 2023