[RCL] Isaiah 5:1-7; Psalm 80:1-2, 8-18; Hebrews 11:29-12:2; Luke 12:49-56 “Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth?” Jesus asks and then answers, “No, I tell you, but rather division!” The cost of following Jesus comes into focus as Jesus, the Prince of Peace, says, “From now on five in…

[RCL]: Isaiah 5:1-7; Psalm 80:1-2, 8-18; Hebrews 11:29-12:2; Luke 12:49-56 “Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth?” Jesus asks and then answers, “No, I tell you, but rather division!” The cost of following Jesus comes into focus as Jesus, the Prince of Peace, says, “From now on five in…

In today’s Epistle lesson, the writer of the Letter to the Hebrews encourages us to persevere in our life of faith, no matter what difficulties we face. “Since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance…

Powerful stuff in today’s readings. Everybody seems to be on a tear; Jesus and Isaiah are full of wrath and judgment, and even the author of Hebrews slips out of his Platonic abstractions long enough to get downright graphic about the costs of discipleship. All pretty grim for a Sunday in late summer. This abundance…

As it says in today’s reading from Jeremiah: “Is not my word like fire, says the Lord, and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?” Or as it says in the Sanhedrin: “As the hammer splits the rock into many splinters, so will a scriptural verse yield many meanings.” Perhaps this Talmudic interpretation…

Many times, when we read a contemporary book, we pass right over the short quotation many writers include in the very beginning to sum up the meaning or theme of their book. However, one contemporary novel has a great opening quotation that’s impossible to ignore: “Any Christian who is not a hero is a pig.”…

We human beings are stubborn. We may understand, or at least we may have heard, that we are God’s people and that our promise of salvation, of redemption, was purchased at great price. A price that was so great, God’s sacrifice of his only Son, it is hard for us to grasp what it might…