Irreverently Reverend

  Fourth Sunday in Lent 4  Then they traveled from Mount Hor on the road toward the Sea of Suf in order to go around the land of Edom; but the people’s tempers grew short because of the detour.  5  The people spoke against God and against Moshe: “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt? To die in the desert? There’s no real food, there’s no water, and we’re sick of this miserable stuff we’re eating!” 6  In response, Adonai sent poisonous snakes among the people; they bit the people, and many of Isra’el’s people died.  7  The people came to Moshe and said, “We sinned by speaking against Adonai and against you. Pray to Adonai that he rid us of these snakes.” Moshe prayed for the people,  8  and Adonai answered Moshe: “Make a poisonous snake and put it on a pole. When anyone who has been bitten sees it, he will live.”  9  Moshe made a bronze snake and put it on the pole; if a snake had bitten some...

  Transfiguration Sunday After we had reached safety, we then learned that the island was called Malta.  2  The natives showed us unusual kindness. Since it had begun to rain and was cold, they kindled a fire and welcomed all of us around it.  3  Paul had gathered a bundle of brushwood and was putting it on the fire, when a viper, driven out by the heat, fastened itself on his hand.  4  When the natives saw the creature hanging from his hand, they said to one another, “This man must be a murderer; though he has escaped from the sea, justice has not allowed him to live.”  5  He, however, shook off the creature into the fire and suffered no harm.  6  They were expecting him to swell up or drop dead, but after they had waited a long time and saw that nothing unusual had happened to him, they changed their minds and began to say that he was a god. 7  Now in the neighborhood of that place were lands belonging to the leading man of...