Epiphany 6 | Ordinary Time 6, Cycle C
With Psalm 1, Jeremiah 17:5-10, and Luke 6:17-26 selected as three of the four biblical bases for the service and message next Sunday, we also can hardly use any other mode of expression than the beatitude ourselves as we lead in worship. Perhaps we should even express the 1 Corinthians 15:12-20 text in part, at [...]
Epiphany 5 | Ordinary Time 5, Cycle C
The calling of Isaiah, the calling of Peter, and (by implication) the calling of each of us dominate the series of texts selected for our use next Sunday. Each is called for a purpose, to carry on a mission, to be commissioned.
Epiphany 4 | Ordinary Time 4, Cycle C
The connection is rather tenuous. Nevertheless, there is a point of contact in all four of these texts in the concept of prophetic powers. In Psalm 71 an old man in distress relies on the Lord to continue the prophetic powers of inspiration that the Lord has given to him since the time of his birth. In the call story in Jeremiah 1:4-10 prophetic powers are said to have been virtually forced upon the reluctant young man Jeremiah. He is said to have been known, consecrated, and appointed to be a prophet even before he had been born. For the Apostle Paul, prophetic powers, important as they are, are of no avail unless they are accompanied by God’s kind of self-giving love. In the Lukan writer’s story about Jesus in his hometown, prophetic powers are said to have gone unrecognized not only at the time of Elijah and Elisha, but also in Jesus himself. As we read and use these texts, we are called to consider the concept of prophetic powers in our own lives and in our own ministries.
Epiphany 3 | Ordinary Time 3, Cycle C
According to these texts, we too should feel that the Spirit of the Lord is upon us, as the Spirit of the Lord was upon the prophet of the Isaiah 61 and 58 traditions and as the Spirit of the Lord was upon Jesus. We too in our times are anointed “to proclaim freedom to the oppressed,” “to announce that those who have been in bondage shall be released and those who have been blinded shall see, to send out from captivity those whose spirits have been broken,” and “to announce the time of the favorable action of the Lord.”
Epiphany 2 | Ordinary Time 2, Cycle C
The Greek word epiphaneia, transliterated into English as “Epiphany,” is widely used in biblical and in non-biblical literature in the technical religious sense of “the visible appearance or manifestation of deity.” In this literature the presence of deity is manifested in a great variety of ways. Anthropomorphisms are commonly employed. Past events are interpreted as [...]