Irreverently Reverend

  Ordinary Time:  Series on the vows of The United Methodist Church 43  “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’  44  But I say to you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,  45  so that you may be children of your Father in heaven, for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.  46  For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?  47  And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the gentiles do the same?  48  Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. 6  “Beware of practicing your righteousness before others in order to be seen by them, for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven. 2  “So whenever you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as...

  Trinity Sunday Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. 17 When they saw him, they worshiped him, but they doubted. 18 And Jesus came and said to them, “ All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit 20 and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you . And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age .” (NRSVue)             A congregant said to a colleague of mine once that she clearly needed to have some extra training as a pastor because the congregation wasn’t growing.   My colleague asked what the congregant was doing to grow in their own faith and the person looked at her with scorn; the purpose of a pastor is to grow a church, they said, and to make sure there were people to step up to take over leade...

  Ordinary Time 21  Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. 22  “The eye is the lamp of the body. Therefore, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light.  23  But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how terrible that darkness will be!  24  No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be loyal to the one and have contempt for the other. You cannot serve God and wealth. 25  “Therefore, I say to you, don’t worry about your life, what you’ll eat or what you’ll drink, or about your body, what you’ll wear. Isn’t life more than food and the body more than clothes?  26  Look at the birds in the sky. They don’t sow seed or harvest grain or gather crops into barns. Yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren’t you worth much more than they are?  27  Who among you by worrying can add a single mome...