Irreverently Reverend

  Ordinary Time What good is it, my sacred family members, if a man says ‘I have faith,’ but has no deeds to show for it?   Can that kind of ‘faith’ set him free and make him whole?   15 If a family member or any human being has no clothes to wear or no food to eat, 16 and you say, ‘Go in peace, stay warm, and eat well,’ but fail to give what is needed, what good have you done? 17 In the same way, without deeds, faith by itself is dead.   18 But someone will say, ‘Faith is what is needed,’ while another says, ‘Good deeds are what is needed.’   I say that both are needed.   You show me your faith without good deeds, and I will show you my faith by the good deeds I have done.   (First Nations Version)             In case you didn’t know, church folk are a tad dramatic.   We, like most people, want to be right, and to have everyone know we’re right, and for everyone else to agree with us because then they would also be right—which is, of course, not specific to the Church at all.  

  Communion Sunday, Ordinary Time The end of all things is near; therefore be serious and discipline yourselves for the sake of your prayers.  8  Above all, maintain constant love for one another, for love covers a multitude of sins.  9  Be hospitable to one another without complaining.  10  Like good stewards of the manifold grace of God, serve one another with whatever gift each of you has received .  11  Whoever speaks must do so as one speaking the very words of God; whoever serves must do so with the strength that God supplies, so that God may be glorified in all things through Jesus Christ. To him belong the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen.  (NRSVue)             “The most notable fact in religion today is that ministers of all denominations are trying, somewhat desperately but with immense energy and imagination, to find new ways to carry God back into the everyday life of society and to make him, in the prevailing cliche of the day, ‘relevant.’ This is not primari