The Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost: Exodus 17:1-7 Philippians 2:1-13 Matthew 21:23-32 “[Moses] called the place Massah and Meribah, because the Israelites quarreled and tested the LORD, saying, ‘Is the LORD among us or not?’” “Massah,” it’s said, means ‘testing.’ And “Meribah,” likewise means ‘contention.’ Good descriptions of what’s going on out in the desert. Last […]

The Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost: Exodus 16:2-15 Matthew 20:1-16 You might know this old joke: two elderly women are at a Catskill mountain resort, and one of ’em says, “Boy, the food at this place is really terrible.” The other one says, “Yeah, I know; and such small portions.” And the comedian concludes: “that’s essentially […]

The Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost: Exodus 14:19-31 Romans 14:1-12 Matthew 18:21-35 Partway through the first season of the show Sandman on Netflix (which is based on a famous comic book), we meet two brothers who live in that show’s Kingdom of Dreams. These brothers live together, they bicker like most roommates, and they have a […]

The Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost; “Welcome Back” Sunday Romans 13:8-14; Matthew 18:15-20 One day a worker sat down with their supervisor for a meeting to discuss salary details; the worker having argued that they deserved a higher stipend than was the norm. The worker tried to make a solid case for fulsome remuneration: “If you’ll […]