Irreverently Reverend

  Pentecost Sunday Now the whole earth had one language and the same words.  2  And as they migrated from the east, they came upon a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.  3  And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and fire them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone and bitumen for mortar.  4  Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves; otherwise we shall be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.”  5  The Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which mortals had built.  6  And the Lord said, “Look, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.  7  Come, let us go down and confuse their language there, so that they will not understand one anoth...

  Ordinary Time These are the descendants of Isaac, Abraham’s son: Abraham was the father of Isaac,  20  and Isaac was forty years old when he married Rebekah, daughter of Bethuel the Aramean of Paddan-aram, sister of Laban the Aramean.  21  Isaac prayed to the Lord for his wife because she was barren, and the Lord granted his prayer, and his wife Rebekah conceived.  22  The children struggled together within her, and she said, “If it is to be this way, why do I live?” So she went to inquire of the Lord.  23  And the Lord said to her, “Two nations are in your womb,     and two peoples born of you shall be divided; the one shall be stronger than the other;     the elder shall serve the younger.” 24  When her time to give birth was at hand, there were twins in her womb.  25  The first came out red, all his body like a hairy mantle, so they name...

  Third Sunday of Ordinary Time Picture this:   three and a half days of sitting with a laptop on a Zoom webinar with 1,000 other people around the state of Michigan worshipping, arguing, asking, clarifying, calling for final votes, and wondering what on Earth is on the bishop’s tie today.           Welcome to virtual Annual Conference.           To those just joining us it may seem like you picked the one day of purely internal business but this is part of who we are.   We United Methodists are a connectional church, so when you get St. Luke’s you also get Michigan, and you get the Northcentral Jurisdiction, and you get The United Methodist Church as a global body.   We lean into each other, tapping the deep roots of shared mission and resources that crisscross the world.   It can be really, really cool.   And, it can be pretty awful. Because organizations need,...