Rev. Nathan Russell came to bring us the good word from Matthew 25:31-46 -- Jesus' last substantive teaching before his arrest and execution. Reading the gospel before the sermon, Nathan asked the church to withhold their "Thanks be to God" following the reading and instead answer two questions: "Is it true?" "Is it meaningful?" When he asks those questions again at the end of the sermon, I guarantee nobody's answers were the same as the first time.
Virgins and lamps, slaves and money... Jesus has us scratching our heads when he says God's reign, God's impending future, is like these. Maybe we have to figure out what he's not saying before we take a stab at what he is saying. Matthew 25:1-30. Yeah, read the whole thing.
We're in those pesky parables offered by Jesus in Jerusalem, the power center of his world, where he is making enemies faster than you can say "wicked tenants." Matthew 21:33-46.
We're back into Jesus' parables, drawn this time from the set that comes late in Matthew's gospel. We're trying to learn to see the world (and its people) the way God sees it (and us). It's very strange, how this "landowning man" does business. Read Matthew 20:1-16 where Jesus quotes Bob Dylan. Or something like that.
Here was our communion devotion for the service with Exodus 16. Wowie kazowie.