[RCL] Ezekiel 2:1-5; Psalm 123; 2 Corinthians 12:2-10; Mark 6:1-13 Note: During the 2024 Season after Pentecost, Sermons That Work will use Track 2 readings for sermons and Bible studies. Please consult our archives for many additional Track 1 resources from prior years. Jesus said, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made…

RCL: 2 Samuel 5:1-5, 9-10; Psalm 48; 2 Corinthians 12:2-10; Mark 6:1-13 What do you think about when someone mentions your hometown? Maybe it’s the sight of your mother’s overabundant garden or running through the backyard to get to your grandparents’ house. Maybe your hometown holds fond recollections of playing summer baseball or walking to…

Several years ago, a diocese was celebrating its one-hundredth anniversary. At the time, the diocese had produced a beautiful coffee table book that contained short histories of each of their parishes, along with a generous helping of pictures. At the diocesan convention that year, the book was being sold everywhere and anywhere, between legislative sessions,…

“David was 30 years old when he began to reign, and he reigned for forty years. … David occupied the stronghold, and named it the City of David. David built the city all around from the Millo inward. And David became greater and greater, for the Lord of hosts was with him.” There is something…

“If any place will not welcome you and they refuse to hear you, as you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.” Today’s gospel reading describes Jesus going to the temple to pray on the Sabbath. He stands up and begins to read the words of Isaiah,…

The prophet Ezekiel was active, scholars think, from about 593 BC to 571 BC. This period encompasses the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem and the exile to Babylon in 587 BC. It was a time of great turmoil for Israel. The reading for today comes from the second chapter of the book of Ezekiel,…

Was your experience of adolescence something like this? The girls or boys in the town or neighboring high school always seemed better looking than the familiar ones. And if you were to ask the teens in those near-by places their experience, they would have said the boys and girls in your school or town were…

He was just a boy from Nazareth, when all was said and done. It wasn’t the greatest place to be from. The people there knew that. They knew what people from more important places said. “Can anything good come out of Galilee?” And Nazareth wasn’t even the best place in Galilee to come from. It…

Here it is Fourth of July weekend and our texts have us reflecting on what it is like to be God’s prophetic voice in the midst of our community and our culture. And the word to Ezekiel, from Paul and the experience of Jesus, all assert that it “ain’t easy.” Being God’s own spokesperson does…