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Proper 11 Year A 2026: Matthew 13:24-30,36-43

In 2003, 27-year-old Army Private First Class Robert Shrode was gravely wounded when an Iraqi rocket propelled grenade struck his vehicle. The blast tore through his body, resulting in the amputation of most of his right arm just below the elbow. His face and body were extensively scarred and heavily embedded with shrapnel fragments. Like many blast survivors, Shrode returned home “honeycombed” with shrapnel. He faced ongoing health challenges from the RPG. Part of his treatment plan included periodic surgery to remove shrapnel that had worked its way to the surface through normal body movement and the passage of time. His choices were to live with the uncertainty of where that shrapnel might make its way to inside his body or the temporary pain to harvest the shrapnel and provide him relief and healing. This week’s parable is similar in format to last week’s. You might notice that there are missing verses; this week we are missing five verses between the parable and Jesus’ explanation...
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Proper 10 Year A 2026: Matthew 11:16-19,25-30

My three-year-old LOVES the capitol building. I can not overemphasize how much she loves that building. Every time she sees it, she will yell “CAPITOL!” and she’s always on the lookout for it, even when I have assured her that she will not be able to see the capitol from 48th and Old Cheney. Her enthusiasm makes it impossible to go “familiarity blind” to the capitol, as I had gone. While it was always nice to see the capitol driving into town when I would come back for a visit, I quickly would go back to not noticing it again when driving around town. Because I grew up in Lincoln. Every time I wanted to go from my house to the university campus or downtown I had to drive by the capitol building - a building I would eventually work in. I was a Cornhusker Girls State citizen the summer after my sophomore year in high school and we were given a ton of time to explore the capitol - something I might have loved if I was from a different part of the state or didn’t have a mother who made it ...
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Independence Day 2026

I like to joke that there are five things that make me the most patriotic: air shows, the Olympics, leaving the country and coming back, salads that involve no lettuce but copious amounts of mayonnaise, and Rocky IV. As I was reflecting on that list - all of which are true - I tried to discern what all of those items have in common. And as much as an air show and mayonnaise might not seem related, they are in how they engender an emotional response in me. When I was interviewing for my first job out of seminary, looking at moving to Colorado after five years in Virginia, the folks at Grace and St. Stephen’s took my family to a restaurant across the street from the church for lunch. When we sat down, we got water in those big plastic Pepsi cups - if you’ve lived in the Midwest for any amount of time, you know which ones I’m talking about. And my husband saw those cups and said to me, “I’m home.” It’s not that those cups are any better. It’s the emotional threads that they tie together. ...
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Proper 8, Year A 2026: Genesis 22:1-14

My husband plays a lot of video games. One of his favorites is actually called The Binding of Isaac . The game takes the raw, harrowing themes of the biblical narrative we read today from Genesis and uses them to construct a dark allegory about religious trauma, childhood isolation, and guilt. The game mirrors the structure of the biblical text perfectly in its opening, only to subvert its meaning entirely to reveal a tragic reality. It’s a game that you can play all the way through in about half an hour, once you know what you’re doing, so I have heard the opening line, “Isaac and his mother” about a million times. The game’s cinematic intro directly references Genesis 22, mapping the biblical figures onto a broken, modern household where Isaac and his mother live alone in a small house on a hill. Isaac draws pictures and plays with toys while Mom watches Christian broadcasts on television. A voice from above (implied to be God, mimicking the test of Abraham) speaks to Mom, demanding ...
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Proper 7 Year A 2026: Genesis 21:8-21

In the movie Dogma , the main character Bethany is sent on a mission from God. Bethany does not want this mission. And as she tells her story of why she isn’t interested in what God wants from her - even as she is on the mission she continues to resist  - she shares her grievances. To combine a couple of exchanges for clarity, she asks, “when the doctor botched my procedure leaving me unable to have children, where was God? And when my husband decided he didn’t want to be with a woman who couldn’t carry his children, where was God?” and while she was going through her divorce, her mother said to her, “Bethany, God has a plan,” to which she responded, “What about my plans? Weren’t my plans good enough for God?” It’s been many years since I last watched Dogma , but that scene has stuck with me. Not because her mother’s response, while intended to comfort, ended up causing her more pain - something we have all experienced as both the well-intended giver and receiver. What struck me is...
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Proper 6 Year A 2026: Genesis 18:1-15

My colleague Pastor Jill Williams is the rector of St. Paul’s by-the-Sea Episcopal Church in Ocean City, Maryland. Her parish is preparing to file a federal lawsuit against the city for attempting to shut down their overnight shelter for unhoused people. The fight began last year when Ocean City passed an ordinance making sleeping in public spaces punishable by jail time. St. Paul’s shelter operates from 7pm to 7am and houses about 27 people every night. The ministry, which is mostly funded by donations and the congregation, also offers dinner and breakfast, and helps overnight guests access other resources, such as substance abuse programs and affordable housing assistance. To quote Pastor Jill, “Every evening our doors open to people who need safety, dignity and hope. We believe that serving our neighbors in this way is part of our calling as a church, and we remain committed to that work.” Last week, when the city arrived at St. Paul’s by-the-Sea to issue their fine, Pastor Jill rea...
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Proper 5 Year A 2026: Matthew 9:9-13,18-25

When my brother and I were tweens, we had an uncanny knack of getting grounded over stupid choices. We weren’t dangerous, just dumb. After a day or two of our sentence, sometimes my mom would approach us and offer clemency. She wanted to show us that although we made mistakes, she believed in our ability to be better. In verse 13 of today's lesson from Matthew, Jesus tells the Pharisees to “go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ This instruction was so important to Jesus that in chapter 12 he tells the pharisees they would have behaved differently “if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’” Jesus is throwing shade at the Pharisees. Telling Pharisees to learn what the Prophets mean is like when an eight year old corrects their teacher. They know. So what point is Jesus making? We are reading in English what Matthew wrote in Greek. Jesus probably spoke Aramaic, day to day, but this quote from the prophet Hosea, which is where “I desire...
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