Scriptures and Prayer for the Twenty-Second Sunday after Pentecost

Old Testament: Job 38:1-7, 34-41 or Isaiah 53:4-12

Psalter: Psalm 104:1-9, 24, 35 or Psalm 91:9-16

Epistle: Hebrews 5:1-10

Gospel: Mark 10:35-45
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Most High, your Anointed One offered himself freely as witness against our violence, our acts of oppression, and our sin. As you delighted to call him your Son, give us the courage to bring you equal delight by our willingness to drink the cup of sacrifice on behalf or our sisters and brothers, and, with them, offer you praise unceasing and lives transformed as true heirs of your grace-filled realm. Amen.

Saturday at the Cinema: How Language Shapes the Way We Think

Truth Is Stranger Than Fiction: Airline Avoids Squirrely Situation

Flight delayed after woman brings squirrel on plane

By SOPHIA ROSENBAUM,
ASSOCIATED PRESS NEW YORK — Oct 10, 2018, 12:59 PM ET

Police at a Florida airport removed a passenger who refused to get off a Cleveland-bound flight after she was found carrying an "emotional support squirrel."

Passengers had already boarded Frontier Airlines Flight 1612 at Orlando International Airport on Tuesday night when they were told there was a "situation" and everyone needed to get off the plane, according to passenger Brandon Nixon.

"Everyone was a little panicked. You expect the worst when they say something like that," the 24-year-old Ashland, Ohio resident said. "A lot of people were asking questions. People wanted to know what was going on."

As he exited the plane, Nixon said he asked a flight attendant if she had any other information. "All she said was 'a squirrel,'" he said.

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Scriptures and Prayer for the Feast of St. Luke

First Reading: Sirach 38:1-4, 6-14

Psalter: Psalm 147

Epistle: 2 Timothy 4:5-13

Gospel: Luke 4:14-21
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Almighty God, who inspired your servant Luke the physician to set forth in the Gospel the love and healing power of your Son: Graciously continue in your Church this love and power to heal, to the praise and glory of your Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

How the Greatness of Life is Measured: A Lectionary Reflection on Mark 10:35-45

Mark 10:35-45

How inappropriate and how out of place for James and John to ask this of Jesus! Our first reaction is one of shock and dismay. Jesus' reaction appears to have been the same. "You don't know what you're asking," he says to them. "Are you able to drink the cup I will drink?" And along with the hymn, the two brothers declare boldly, "Lord, we are able." No doubt they believe that at the moment.

Scriptures and Prayer for the Twenty-First Sunday after Pentecost

Old Testament: Job 23:1-9, 16-17 or Amos 5:6-7, 10-15

Psalter: Psalm 22:1-15 or Psalm 90:12-17

Epistle: Hebrews 4:12-16

Gospel: Mark 10:17-31
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God of all who are cast down, you call us to seek good and to meet oppression with justice. Teach us to find salvation in the emptying of ourselves for the sake of those in need, so that goodness may prevail and your kingdom come in Jesus Christ. Amen.

Saturday at the Cinema: A Dark Fruition: Waiting in Hope

The retirement lecture of a fine New Testament Scholar, Richard B. Hays

What Is the Christian Response to Empire? Not Capitulate? Not Resist? But Negotiate.

from Scot McKnight:
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The operative term here is "negotiate." Not antagonize, not so much accommodation. Negotiate. The Pastor is the author/audience of The Pastoral Epistles. I think a case can be made for the Pastor being Paul, but that's not a concern in this post. Negotiation is.

Behind the term "negotiation" is another term: eusebeia, which is translated consistently in the NIV as "godliness," which is a decent translation...

Hoklotubbe [in his book, Civilized Piety: The Rhetoric of Pietas in the Pastoral Epistles and the Roman Empire,] knows about anti-empire approaches and about accommodation approaches and about capitulation approaches, but he steers a moderating path that genuinely considers both ends of the spectrum...

For those wrapped up in anti-empire hermeneutics this will not be a welcome use of the very same evidence for a different explanation: not resistance but negotiation. I find Hoklotubbe not polemical but cautious and balanced. The modest, chaste wife, then, is part of the same negotiation motif. The wealthy, too, are both valued as benefactors but warned about Roman cultural values that are not in line with Christian values.

… alongside the negotiation of the term eusebeia are very clear differences between the Empire's religious and cultural values. Thus, this term in context reveals this is not about accommodation or capitulation but about negotiation.
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The entire post can be read here.

Scriptures and Prayer for the Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Old Testament: Esther 7:1-6, 9-10; 9:20-22 or Numbers 11:4-6, 10-16, 24-29

Psalter: Psalm 124 or Psalm 19:7-14

Epistle: James 5:13-20

Gospel: Mark 9:38-50
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Raise us up, O Lord, for it is you alone who restores life and health to the suffering and to those who wander from the truth. By your grace, may we offer powerful and effective prayers for one another and the world, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.