I think the best strategy for a children’s sermon on Mark 5:21-43 is to focus on the child in the story. The passage (as I said when I wrote a meditation on it) is a “sandwich” story: There’s one story on the outside with a second story in the middle.. The outside story, the bread […]
A Children’s Sermon on Matthew 10:40-42
Writing a children’s sermon on Matthew 10:40-42 (which comes up the Fourth Sunday after Pentecost in “Year A” of the Revised Common Lectionary) is kind of challenging. First, the text is really short. Just three verses! Second, it has no narrative action. Stories are far easier than non-narrative texts as a base for a children’s […]
Matthew 10:40-42 — A Monday Meditation — RCL Year A, Proper 8 (13)
On the 4th Sunday after Pentecost, in Year A of the lectionary, we finish our three-week journey through the chapter with Matthew 10:40-42. It started out with Jesus preparing his disciples for a mission trip. His lessons morphed into warnings of much later persecutions. And now we get this tiny reading which is ostensibly the […]
Monday Meditation: RCL Year C, 3rd Sunday after Pentecost/Proper 8(13), Luke 9:51-62
Though this is “Year C” of the Revised Common Lectionary, and that means a focus on Luke’s Gospel, no one should feel alarmed at occasionally losing the thread of the narrative. Like maybe this week. This week Jesus sets his sights on Jerusalem. The push to the Passion is on, and he’s still reaching out, […]