Sermons from November 2013
What Kind of King Is This?
By The Rev. Sherry Deets 27 Pentecost, Proper 29 – November 24, 2013 Luke 23:33-43 So, this is the last Sunday in the church season of Pentecost and it is called Christ the King Sunday. The Biblical titles of Jesus Son of God, Messiah, and King have been so thoroughly absorbed as words for church and worship that their simple, earthly force is largely lost. Jesus’ crucifixion, however, did not occur on an altar between two candles, but outside the…
Things Are Not Always As They Appear
By The Rev. Sherry Deets 26 Pentecost, Proper 28 – November 17, 2013 Luke 21:5-19 The Temple, that most Jewish of places, the place where God touched the earth and held it still and safe. The Temple was stunning. The Temple was huge. The Temple was overwhelming, as befits the building that honors the God who alone is God. And the Temple was beautiful because Herod, that Roman stooge who styled himself as King of the Jews, had spent massive…
Whose Wife Will This Woman Be?
By The Rev. Sherry Deets 25 Pentecost, Proper 27 – November 10, 2013 Luke 20:27-38 The Sadducees were only one segment of the Jewish community in the time of Jesus. Generally speaking, they were the old aristocracy, with ties to the temple priesthood. They were the religious and social conservatives who, unlike other Jews, accepted as Scripture only the five books of Moses: Genesis through Deuteronomy. They denied not simply the resurrection of the dead, but spirits and angels as…
The Third Way of Jesus
By The Rev. Sherry Deets All Saints’ Sunday – November 3, 2013 Luke 6:20-31 The gospel for this All Saints’ Sunday comes from the Sermon on the Plain that Jesus preaches in Luke’s Gospel. The Beatitudes from the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew’s Gospel may be more familiar, but what Luke gives us appears more provocative: it is a series of blessings followed by a parallel series of woes. Blessed are you who are poor, who are hungry, who…