Proper 18 | Ordinary Time 23 - A

I grew up in the church.  I was a preacher’s kid, and so I was in church every Sunday morning of my childhood and adolescent years.  And, many weeks, it was more than just Sunday morning!

2 Samuel 11:1-15
It’s hard to deal with the fact, for some of us, that we can’t do everything we used to do. The young David slayed Goliath. The people sang how Saul killed his thousands and David his tens of thousands. The future king, anointed by Samuel, engages in one military adventure after another. When he finally enters Jerusalem, the new capital of a united kingdom, he unapologetically dances so vigorously ahead of the Ark of the Covenant that he earns the disdain of his wife Michal.

Contents
“The Measure of the Universe” by Frank Ramirez
“Dream for a Divided Nation” by John Sumwalt


The Measure of the Universe
by Frank Ramirez
Ephesians 3:14-21

I pray that you may have the power to comprehend…what is the breadth and length and height and depth…. (Ephesians 3:18)

Object: A bag of croutons and a bag of goldfish crackers. Use the included instructions to create a “Miracle Sack” and follow the ‘script’ for the activity. Prepare the sack ahead of time, putting enough croutons and goldfish crackers in the Miracle Sack so you can give some to each child, and keeping the five croutons and 2 goldfish crackers out to show as you tell the story.

It was nearly the week of the show and Christopher's heart was beating very fast. It was beating fast because he was feeling very anxious. Christopher's friend Rex spent a lot of time on his father's allotment and was always coming into school boasting about how big his carrots were, or how tall for his corn had grown, or how beautiful his sweet peas smelt.

"The wind was squealing through the rigging," Peter said. "We'd gotten the sail down and were doing our best to row into the wind. It was tougher than we'd faced for a long time -- especially at night. Half of us rowed, half bailed. We all prayed."

Theme of the Day
We're all in the same boat!

Collect of the Day
It is noted that the gracious God has placed in the hearts of all a longing for the word of truth. Prayer is offered that the faithful may know Christ to be the bread of heaven and share this bread with the entire world. Justification, Sanctification, Evangelism, and perhaps Social Ethics receive attention.

Psalm of the Day
Psalm 14
* A Psalm attributed to David; a condemnation of a cynical and unrighteous age.

David gets in trouble the way many other men get in trouble. Some women do also but often in a less adulterous way. Women get "twitterpated" by beauty but often think of themselves as the one who should become beautiful. I think of the movie, The Devil Wears Prada, which is the story of fascination with fashion -- the women are all hooked deeply on how they look, so deeply that they think a size six is too fat. David's issue is different but also connected: He takes the problem of his lust for Bathsheba into a conniving and deceitful way.