A quick note: I’ll be reflecting on the Gospel appointed for All Saints’ Sunday but will put links here to a commentary and reflection I’ve written on Luke 20:27-28 (Pentecost 25 C) below. Luke 6:20-31 Dear Partner in Preaching, There is a reason that Luke describes Jesus preaching his most famous sermon from a plain rather than a mountain. Have you ever noticed that? That what we routinely call the “Sermon on the Mount” isn’t delivered from a mountain in Luke’s Gospel? That is what happens in Matthew’s story, but not Luke’s. Jesus does indeed go up a mountain in Luke’s account, but it is in order to pray, and after a...
All Saints’ Sunday B: Look Twice
posted by DJL
Dear Partner in Preaching, On the nightstand beside my childhood bed stood a plaster statuette of two children kneeling, hands folded and heads bowed. Beneath them, raised in gilt-edged letters, ran the old English prayer, Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep. And if I die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take. Not too long ago, I happened to glance upon a similar item, tucked away in the corner of a display window of a bright, cheerful shop of books and collectibles, but this time made of plastic and with a slightly altered prayer: Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep. Guide me safely...