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. . . Picking up from yesterday, how do we know whether we are doing God’s will versus pursuing our own?  Put another way, how do we move from justification by faith and grace to sanctification through faith and grace?  Our lesson scripture today has something to say about this. The first eleven chapters of [...]

My, there’s a lot in today’s lesson scripture!  Maybe my sense of this abundance comes from the way in which 2 Corinthians 9 describes God’s abundant grace in calling upon us to emulate him in this regard.  Here’s today’s lesson: 6 The point is this: the one who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the [...]

To “sanctify” (“consecrate” in the NIV) is to set apart the congregation for God’s purpose.  We do this by confessing our sins before we begin the Eucharistic Prayer and approach the Lord’s table.  In making our confession, we should engage in self-examination – a process that should leave us convicted of our unworthiness and of the [...]

    The crisis of this moment has several parts, and like Episcopalians, particularly the ones in Mississippi, they’re all related . . .           — Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori              Opening Address at General Convention 2009 I really need to let some one with better wit and means of expressing it (Danny Mac [...]

We continue to look at scripture this week in the context of remembering – looking ahead to this Sunday’s lesson on the power of sacred memory.  Our lesson scripture for today is a portion of Psalm 105, which recalls what God has done for Israel from Abraham to the conquest of Canaan.  Today we stop [...]

Today, Pope Benedict released his encyclical, Caritas in Veritate (Charity in Truth), the first social encyclical since Pope John Paul II wrote Centesimus Annus in 1991.  Signed last week on the feast day of St. Peter and St. Paul (June 29th), its public release was obviously timed to coincide with the beginning tomorrow of the [...]

Today’s lesson teaches us that God’s law is not about compelling us to obey a set of “do’s and don’ts”, it’s about a pathway to reconciliation with our Creator.  The author of this quarter’s study chose not to use the decalogue from the twentieth chapter of Exodus, but instead chose to use today’s lesson scripture [...]

Tomorrow, we study the covenant made at Sinai between God and the people of Israel.  Something happened in that wilderness more than four thousand years ago that echoes down through the ages and touches us with mystery even today.  God tells the people of Abraham, through whom the nations will be blessed, here is the [...]

What is Paul saying here? 25 So that you may not claim to be wiser than you are, brothers and sisters, I want you to understand this mystery: a hardening has come upon part of Israel, until the full number of the Gentiles has come in. 26 And so all Israel will be saved; as it is [...]

God keeps his promises - even promises conditioned on our failing promises. When I read each day’s scripture I try to remember to pause and to pray.  Sometimes we get so caught up in the logic of God, that we miss the love of God.  We read St. Paul, Origen, Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, C. S. Lewis, [...]