Irreverently Reverend

  Fifth Sunday of Easter So what are we going to say? Should we continue sinning so grace will multiply?  2  Absolutely not! All of us died to sin. How can we still live in it?  3  Or don’t you know that all who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?  4  Therefore, we were buried together with him through baptism into his death , so that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too can walk in newness of life.  5  If we were united together in a death like his, we will also be united together in a resurrection like his.  6  This is what we know: the person that we used to be was crucified with him in order to get rid of the corpse that had been controlled by sin. That way we wouldn’t be slaves to sin anymore,  7  because a person who has died has been freed from sin’s power.  8  But if we died with Christ, we have faith that we will also live with him....

  Blue Christmas/Longest Night (last week of Advent) We know that the whole creation is groaning together and suffering labor pains up until now.   And it’s not only the creation. We ourselves who have the Spirit as the first crop of the harvest also groan inside as we wait to be adopted and for our bodies to be set free.   We were saved in hope. If we see what we hope for, that isn’t hope. Who hopes for what they already see?   But if we hope for what we don’t see, we wait for it with patience. In the same way, the Spirit comes to help our weakness. We don’t know what we should pray, but the Spirit himself pleads our case with unexpressed groans.   The one who searches hearts knows how the Spirit thinks, because he pleads for the saints, consistent with God’s will. (CEB)             One of my favorite book series is The Dark Is Rising by Susan Cooper.   It’s been on my mind this week because the BBC...

  Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,  2  through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand, and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God.  3  And not only that, but we also boast in our afflictions, knowing that affliction produces endurance,  4  and endurance produces character, and character produces hope,  5  and hope does not put us to shame , because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us. (NRSVUE)             It is a strange thing—and it was not my intention—that my first sermon and my last at St. Luke’s both come from Paul’s letter to the Romans.   This is what comes of keeping to the lectionary; it is fairly consistent in its connecting patterns.           Romans, whil...