The Acoustic Word - Greg Ronning
December 15, 2013 Advent 3A Matthew 11:2-11
My family has been asking me what I want for Christmas this year, and I have been pondering that question in a fairly serious way. So it is I came to a conclusion, just a few days ago. I announced that I wanted a new robe, [...]
December 8 2013 Advent 2A Isaiah 40:3-5 Matthew 3:1-6
I am always amused by these Advent texts and the way that Jesus seemingly misquotes the prophet Isaiah. Isaiah writes, “A voice cries out: ‘In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.’” And [...]
This Sunday marks the beginning of a new liturgical year, the season of Advent. And for those of us who belong to liturgical churches this means changing the colors of the paraments that decorate our churches. So what is the color of Advent?
November 24 2014 Christ the King C Luke 23: 33-43
This week as we celebrate Christ the King Sunday, we are asked “to trust” in Jesus as King, as the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, as God, as the ultimate truth in life. The problem is the King of [...]
November 17 2013 Lectionary 33C 26th Sunday after Pentecost Luke 21:5-19; 2 Thessalonians 3:6-13
“The Jug of Water.” An African Folk Tale
A Nigerian tribal chief sent out his messengers to invite all the people of the tribe to a great feast. “All of the food will be provided,” he announced, [...]
November 10, 2013 Lectionary 32C Text Twenty-fifth Sunday after Pentecost
In this week’s Gospel reading the Sadducees ask Jesus a complicated question about the resurrection. They tell a story about a women who had seven husbands and they are wondering whose wife she will be in heaven. (Luke 20:27-38) It’s a trick question, [...]
November 3, 2013 All Saints Day C 1 Corinthians 15:51-57
Listen, I will tell you a mystery! We will not all die, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, [...]
October 27, 2013 Reformation Sunday John 8:31-36
As a young man in the early part of this century American novelist and playwright Thornton Wilder became frustrated with the drama productions he was attending. It puzzled him for all the productions were well directed, well performed, well costumed, and the sets were authentic in [...]
October 20 2013 Lectionary 29C Twenty-Second Sunday after Pentecost C Luke 18:1-8
In this week’s Gospel Jesus tells the parable of the widow and the unjust judge, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people. In that city there was a widow who kept [...]
October 13, 2013 Lectionary 28C Twenty-First Sunday after Pentecost C Luke 17:11-19
“On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee.” (Luke 17:11) In this week’s Gospel Jesus finds himself somewhere along the border. Jesus is wandering through some kind of no man’s land, an uncomfortable place [...]
