Paul to the Colossians

**My Goodness, this has really been a week of troubling events in our nation. At least from my perspective it has been. Congress, House and Senate, will have to hammer out an extraordinary compromise with regard to the Farm Bill since the House completely withdrew all mention of Nutrition Supplements. Our nation is on edge as we once again face the problems of  laws which fail to increase personal safety, and fail to provide justice for the survivors of gun violence. We have once again been challenged to look around us and answer the question "who is my neighbor"? White privilege and racism are exposed to the light of day in the wake of the George Zimmerman verdict. The family of Trayvon Martin have asked for only non-violent demonstrations but the reality mobs without advance training in the tactics of Non-violence, which Martin Luther King insisted upon run amok. Mob mentality is something Jesus understands pretty well. His crucifixion after all, was the result of leaders manipulating the mobs to ensure their places of power in the Roman Emperor's system.

“Take your Bible and take your newspaper, and read both. But interpret newspapers from your Bible.” Karl Barth

One of the challenges for preachers in any congregation is the task of engaging the intersection between context and text. When advising other ministers of the word, Karl Barth gave the admonition to all that they should enter the pulpit with the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other hand. Subsequent generations of preachers have wrestled with this instruction, myself included. The preacher's task is to offer comfort for the afflicted and provoke those who are dangerously comfortable in their circumstances. The preacher's task includes raising up questions about how God is speaking to the church through the witness captured in Scripture. This has been my understanding, even long before I entered Seminary. I was never comfortable listening to a sermon that smacked of self-satisfaction with the conditions that surrounded the congregation. Perhaps Barth had something less confrontational in mind; and that will be a question for table talk in the Kingdom in Heaven. I can also attest to the reality that this type of homiletics raises eyebrows and objections from the pews for an assortment of reasons; some quite valid, others not so.

But sitting down to read, mark and inwardly digest the Scripture lessons for this forum, provided more freedom. It is an act of listening to the texts each week, to imagine my place in the scripture as it unfolds. In that process I hope to meet the Holy and from that encounter to prepare a weekly study. It brings less fear of negative repercussions from the community; after all, no one is supporting me financially for what I prepare for public reading. If there will be any repercussions it may be in who or whom might be interested in calling me forth for a position in the future. The only loss would be if I were to resist the prompting of the Holy Spirit and fail to speak when stirred from within and without. 

A

Colossians 1:1-14

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,{FROM TWO}
To the saints and faithful brothers and sisters in Christ in Colossae: {TO MANY}
Grace to you and peace from God our Father. {A blessing}
In our prayers for you we always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, for we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. You have heard of this hope before in the word of the truth, the gospel that has come to you. Just as it is bearing fruit and growing in the whole world, so it has been bearing fruit among yourselves from the day you heard it and truly comprehended the grace of God. This you learned from Epaphras, our beloved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf, and he has made known to us your love in the Spirit.
For this reason, since the day we heard it, we have not ceased praying for you and asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of God's will {A}in all spiritual wisdom and {B}understanding, so that you may {1}lead lives worthy of the Lord, {2}fully pleasing to him, as you {3}bear fruit in every good work and as you {4}grow in the knowledge of God. May you be {5}made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power, and may you be {6}prepared to endure everything with patience, while joyfully {7}giving thanks to the Father, who {8}has enabled you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light. He has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

closing with the collect for the week.

O Lord, mercifully receive the prayers of your people who call upon you, and grant that they may know and understand what things they ought to do, and also may have grace and power faithfully to accomplish them; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (BCP)

The texts for last Sunday are here
The calendar for all Lectionary readings are here
If you want to read from the Book of Common Prayer, 1979 check this link

**republishing ** originally published 7/18/2013

Nine years later...

June7, 2022- The news continues to baffle this spiritual mind.  Gun violence continues to grow at exponential rates. The month of May 2022 had only 5 days without mass casualty gun violence.