Tag: eastertide

Preparing for Sunday: September 11, 2022

Preparing for Sunday: September 11, 2022

Fourteenth Sunday After Pentecost

Preparing for Sunday is a weekly time to prepare for Sunday worship. Based on the Revised Common Lectionary, Preparing for Sunday is a time to step away from the busyness of the world and reflect on what God is saying to us.

This week’s text is from Luke 15:1-10.

Do you have questions or answers to the questions? Leave them in the comments.

Here are some questions to think about the text:

  1. Think about a time when you were lost.  How did you feel?  How did you feel when you were found?

  2. Think about a time when you lost something.  It could have been a person or something that means a lot to you.  How did that feel?  What did it mean when you finally found this thing or person that was lost?

  3. Why do you think Jesus says twice that there is more rejoicing over the one sinner who repents over those who don’t repent?

  4. Who are the sinners and tax collectors?  Why do you think they come to Jesus? Who are the tax collectors and sinners in your life?

  5. Why were the religious leaders so offended? How do you think they treated the tax collectors and sinners?

  6. Who is lost in this passage, the sinners or the religious leaders or both?

 

What are your answers? What are your questions? Feel free to share them by responding to this post in the comments section or sending an email to info@fccsaintpaul.org.

Preparing for Sunday: May 1, 2022

Preparing for Sunday: May 1, 2022

Third Sunday of Easter

Preparing for Sunday is a weekly time to prepare for Sunday worship. Based on the Revised Common Lectionary, Preparing for Sunday is a time to step away from the busyness of the world and reflect on what God is saying to us.

This week’s text is from Acts 9:1-20.

Do you have questions or answers to the questions? Leave them in the comments.






Here are some questions to think about the text:

  1. Was Saul’s experience one of conversion or a call to ministry?
  2. Why do you think the other people with Saul never heard the voice Saul heard?
  3. Ananias had his concerns about healing Saul. Was Ananias right to ask these questions to God?
  4. In his discussion with Ananias God calls Saul an instrument to the Gentiles. God was using Saul to bring the good news to Gentiles.  What does it mean to be an instrument of God?
  5. Does it matter that Ananias said he was sent to heal Saul? How is this an example of discipleship?
  6. What does it mean after his healing that Saul went to proclaim in the synagogue?

 

What are your answers? What are your questions? Feel free to share them by responding to this post in the comments section or sending an email to info@fccsaintpaul.org.

Marching Orders- May 4, 2014

May 4, 2014- Third Sunday of Easter, Year A

Luke 24:13-25

breaking bread emmausFood doesn’t just bring needed nourishment to us, but it’s a context that brings people together. I remember eating arroz con pollo and talking in Spanish to my abuela, or grandmother. I remember eating so much soul food that I probably needed angioplasty at a family event in Louisiana a few years back, but it was also a wonderful time to get reaquainted with my southern relatives.

Here in Luke 24 we encounter another story concerning the ressurection. It’s the road to Emmaus where Jesus appears in disguise to two of his disciples. They had thought Jesus was the one that would save them, and now their savior was dead. They told this disguised Jesus that it was already the third day since his death and in Jewish tradition, this meant that the soul had left the body, meaning there was no hope that Jesus would ever come back. These two had lost hope and were alone. They had placed their hopes on this one called Jesus and it had all ended so badly.

Jesus is kept hidden from the two disciples.  We don’t know why that is, but it is only at the breaking of the bread that they discovered Jesus was with them all along.

If you want to know who Jesus is, look at the meals Jesus ate.  These are the places where he reveals himself to the world.  The calling of Matthew the tax collector, the “sinful” woman who annointed Jesus, Zacheus and other events showed a God that cared for the lost, hurting and broken.

This is the savior we worship, one that is made known to us in meals. As followers of Jesus, do our meals, at our communion tables and at all of our tables reveal the something about the Risen Savior?

Sermon: “The Healing Power of Collard Greens”

Sermon: “The Healing Power of Collard Greens”.

I love good food, and it probably shows.
emmaus
I consider myself lucky to be born in the family that I’m in, because I grew up with two wonderful cooking traditions. On my father’s side is the African American tradition of the Deep South. It’s a tradition of fried chicken, collard greens, mac and cheese, cornbread stuffing and sweet potato pie. It is all fattening and it’s all good.

Continue reading  Sermon: “The Healing Power of Collard Greens”.