Irreverently Reverend

  Ordinary Time 4  But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a broom tree. And he asked that he might die, saying, “It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my fathers.”  5  And he lay down and slept under a broom tree. And behold, an angel touched him and said to him, “Arise and eat.”  6  And he looked, and behold, there was at his head a cake baked on hot stones and a jar of water. And he ate and drank and lay down again.  7  And the angel of the Lord came again a second time and touched him and said, “Arise and eat, for the journey is too great for you.”  8  And he arose and ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mount of God.   (ESV)             An article in the Los Angeles Times from 2019 named the fact that “self-ca...

  Advent IV 18  Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.  19  Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly.  20  But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.  21  She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”  22  All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet: 23  “Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,     and they shall name him Emmanuel,” which means, “God is with us.”  24  When Joseph awoke fro...