The Gospel text for the 6th Sunday after Epiphany (Luke 6:17-26) is familiar and unfamiliar at the same time. The heart of it is the “Beatitudes,” the seemingly winsome but then difficult and paradoxical declarations by Jesus of what makes a person “blessed” or, in some translations, “happy.” Matthew’s version is much more prominent in […]
Monday Meditation: RCL Year C, 4th Sunday after Epiphany, Luke 4:21-30
I told you last week that the lectionary gave us only half of a story: Jesus came to his hometown synagogue and proclaimed himself the Messiah. Everyone seemed happy about it. This week (the 4th Sunday after Epiphany) we get to see the the rest of the story, in which the mob tries to throw […]
Monday Meditation: RCL Year C, 3rd Sunday after Epiphany, Luke 4:14-21
The lectionary is only intermittently committed to the narrative line of Scripture. This Sunday, the Third after Epiphany, brings us back to Luke (specifically Luke 4:14-21), but we’ve skipped an important bit. Two weeks ago we had the Baptism of the Lord from Luke, but we jump right past his temptation in the wilderness, the […]
Monday Meditation: RCL Year C, Baptism of the Lord, Luke 3:15-17, 21-22
In the West, the first Sunday after Epiphany celebrates “The Baptism of the Lord.” In Year C the text is Luke 3:15-17, 21-22. This is the event which Eastern Orthodoxy celebrated on Epiphany itself, or as they often call it, the Theophany. By way of definitions: “Epiphany” means “appearance” or “manifestation.” In the West we […]
Monday Meditation: RCL Years ABC, Epiphany of the Lord, Matthew 2:1-12
Epiphany? January 6 is “Epiphany” wherever you may be, but the celebration has a different emphasis in the West than the East. The word itself means “appearance” or “manifestation.” In the Western Church year it is about the appearance, or manifestation of Christ to the non-Jewish nations of the world. That’s you and me, Bub. […]
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