Irreverently Reverend

  Sermon for a service of consecrating new licensed local pastors Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the wilderness and came to Mount Horeb, the mountain of God.  2  There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed.  3  Then Moses said, “I must turn aside and look at this great sight and see why the bush is not burned up.”  4  When the Lord saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.”  5  Then he said, “Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.”  6  He said further, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.   ...

  All Saints Day You have been a refuge for the poor,     a refuge for the needy in distress,     a hiding place from the storm,     a shade from the heat. When the breath of tyrants is like a winter storm 5      or like heat in the desert,     you subdue the roar of foreigners. Like heat shaded by a cloud,     the tyrants’ song falls silent. 6 On this mountain,     the Lord of heavenly forces will prepare for all peoples         a rich feast , a feast of choice wines,         of select foods rich in flavor,         of choice wines well refined. 7 He will swallow up on this mountain the veil that is veiling all peoples,     the shroud enshrouding all nations. 8 He will swallow up death forever. The Lord God will wipe tears...

  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...

  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...