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Sunday between October 2 and October 8 inclusive Old Testament Lesson Plans: God’s instructions to live and love Scripture: Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20 Written by the Rev. Shannon Kelly Prior to God giving the Israelites the commandments, the people of Israel reached Mount Sinai where God tells Moses how to prepare the people for what is to…
RCL: Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20; Psalm 19; Philippians 3:4b-14; Matthew 21:33-46 Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20 There’s something about the Ten Commandments that engages my Inner Child. Not a fun, playful Inner Child, but a child who is very keenly invested in rules: Children naturally are interested in rulemaking, rule-keeping, and rule-enforcement. When I read the…
[RCL] Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20; Psalm 19; Philippians 3:4b-14; Matthew 21:33-46 A form of wordplay people think is either great or terrible, depending on whether or not they’re fans, is the pun. You know, jokes that play on words with different meanings or words that sound alike. Silly things like, Why do cows have bells?…
[RCL] Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20; Psalm 19; Philippians 3:4b-14; Matthew 21:33-46 Being preached to on a parable can sometimes feel like you’re at the Grand Canyon and the tour guide is standing right in your line of vision. Or you are meandering through a stunning art gallery and the curator stops right in the middle…
Exodus 20:1-4,7-9, 12-20 When the people are led out of slavery and into the wilderness, they become free of the rule of Pharaoh. But what will they do now? What does it mean to be a free people? While it may be easy to see the Ten Commandments as an imposition of constraints—a series of…
The easiest way for a preacher to deal with the challenging story in today’s Gospel reading might be to understand it as simply a metaphor for events we already know well – another tale of deadly confrontation between Jesus and the Jewish leadership of his day. As we heard at the end of the passage,…
Isaiah 5:1-7 In this reading, we hear the consequences of God’s deep disappointment. Regardless of the goodness of God’s creation and the abundance of God’s provision for God’s people, all this careful work and love has not yielded good fruit. Instead it has brought forth “bad grapes.” God provided and Israel did not hold up…
Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20 The Decalogue begins with one of the most powerful statements in Scripture: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery” (verse 2). Who was this mysterious voice, this unquenchable flame, this pillar of cloud? What force parted the…
Any halfway decent real-estate agent or commercial property manager could probably explain today’s gospel parable from Matthew in two seconds flat. It is all about landlords and tenants after all. And there is an entire body of business law devoted to them and their all-too-numerous disputes. In Jesus’ telling, a vineyard owner contracts with tenants…
Isaiah 5:1-7 In this reading, we hear the consequences of God’s deep disappointment. Regardless of the goodness of God’s creation and the abundance of God’s provision for God’s people, all this careful work and love has not yielded good fruit. Instead it has brought forth “bad grapes.” God provided and Israel did not hold up…
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