Conversations in Ministry -- New Book Series for Clergy Announced

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Counting the Cost of Discipleship -- A Lectionary Reflection on the Gospel (Pentecost 16 C)

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Luke 14:25-33

Counting the Cost of Discipleship
Note:  Due to being on Sabbatical this fall, I will be limiting my weekly lectionary reflections to the reading from the Gospel.                 When I read this passage from the Gospel of Luke, my first inclination is to reach for Dietrich Bonhoeffer’sbook Discipleship (Cost of Discipleship).  For those of us who have read Bonhoeffer’s celebrated book, we know how he stresses the way of the cross and challenges those who preach cheap grace.  To follow Jesus is an extraordinarily difficult calling.  Writing as he did from within a context wherein evil had taken hold not only of a nation but a church.  Even before Hitler rose to power there was this desire to connect the church to the service of German nationalism.  In the midst of this cauldron, Bonhoeffer took hold of Jesus’ message of the cross and laid it out as the foundation of the Christian life.  To illustrate the radicalness of this vision, I need only lift up that phrase that is b…
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Need a Job? -- A Sermon for Labor Day

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Matthew 20:1-16

Jesus liked to tell stories, and the story we’ve heard this morning speaks of a vineyard owner who goes down to the corner, where the day-laborers gather, to hire some help for the day.  
Back in California, in places where construction is taking place or in agricultural areas, a scene like this is quite common.  A truck drives up, a person gets out, asks the group if anyone there needs a job.  The prospective employer will describe the job, tell the prospective workers how much the job will pay, and if there are any takers, the laborers jump in the truck and off they go. That’s not all that different from what happens in Jesus’ story – except for the pickup truck – for obvious reasons.   
In Jesus’ parable, the vineyard owner goes down to the corner early in the morning, hires the hands he needs and puts them to work.  He’ll continue doing this throughout the day.  I don’t know if the job ended up being bigger than he thought, or he’s just overly generous.  Near the end …
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At Table -- A Homily for Maundy Thursday

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1 Corinthians 11:23-27

In a moment we’ll gather at the Table of the Lord. We’ll break bread and share the cup together. We’ll do this as two congregations from two different denominations. There was a time when this kind of gathering would be impossible. You might gather to sing hymns or hear a preacher, but the Table was different. It was open only to the insiders. There are still traditions that “fence the Table,” but fortunately that is not true here. We can gather at the Table to remember the meal Jesus established to unite his people in love.  
This meal of remembrance is rooted in other biblical meals, including Passover and the “feeding of the 5000.” We might want to add other meals including the meal Abraham and Sarah shared with the three strangers at the Oaks of Mamre. These strangers were received with hospitality, and in return they delivered a promise that the covenant God wished to establish with Abraham would include Sarah, who was to bear a child through whom the nations…
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