Proper 23
Preaching
Lectionary Preaching Workbook
Series III, Cycle C
The Church Year Theological Clue
The Twenty-first Sunday after Pentecost and All Saints' Sunday will coincide with each other on November 1, 1992. Depending on the lectionary followed and the calendar year, it may fall on other Sundays in other years. All Saints' Day will take precedence in most denominations and congregations. There will be sufficient publicity in the media about All Saints' Day so that it will be on the minds of many of the people who go to worship in most churches on November 1. It has become such a popular festival in Protestant, as well as Roman Catholic churches, that it will tend to dominate, as well as inculcate, the planning of worship and preaching on November 1.
For all intents and purposes, All Saints' Day has become a festival for the entire church triumphant, rather than a day of celebration and remembrance for unnamed martyrs of the past. "Ordinary" saints used to be remembered on November 2, as a kind of "second order" of saints. Congregations now read lists of those who have died in the past year, may have photographs of all former "saints" who have died in the Christian faith placed around the building. In some parts of Christendom, there are almost extravagant celebrations for the departed saints of their communities, with cemeteries crowded with the living friends and relatives of those long, or recently, dead. All Saints' Day now generates a celebration of the total body of Christ, the church triumphant and the church militant, of those who have believed, and do believe, that Christ is Lord.
The first Sunday in November also sees "the beginning of the end" of the church year; not only is the church coming to the conclusion of its calendar year, but it is also beginning a recital and something of a count-down, of the "last things" connected to the gospel of our Lord. His reign has begun and, in God's time, he will return to bring in the fullness of the kingdom. The theological focus of the gospel, therefore, from All Saints' Day to Christ the King and on into the Advent season, focuses on the expected parousia and the kingdom that will never end.
The Prayer Of The Day
The Prayer of the Day in The Lutheran Book of Worship must have been prepared with the Gospel for the Twenty-first Sunday after Pentecost (Luke 17:11-19 - the story of the 10 lepers whom Jesus healed) in mind: "Almighty God, source of every blessing, your generous goodness comes to us anew every day. By the work of your Spirit lead us to acknowledge your goodness, give thanks for your benefits, and serve you in willing obedience; through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord."
The Psalm Of The Day
Psalm 98:1-4 (RC) - The various lectionaries and worship books make multiple use of this psalm. The Roman Catholic ORDO uses it as a responsory to the first lesson no less than seven times in the three-year cycle of readings. In this psalm, Cantate Domino - "Sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things" - the writer sings of how God has won the victory "with his right hand and his holy arm." Not only that, but he has made known this victory to the ends of the earth. His song is anything but a lament. The last verses call upon the faithful to sing a new song.
Psalm 111 (L) - Here is a Hallel psalm that immediately offers thanks to God for his loving grace:
I will give thanks to the Lord
with my whole heart,
in the assembly of the upright,
in the congregation.
After praising God for the greatness of his deeds, they are recounted specifically, culminating with:
He sent redemption to his people;
he commanded his covenant forever;
holy and awesome is his name.
And it ends on a familiar note:
The fear of the Lord
is the beginning of wisdom;
those who act accordingly
have a good understanding.
His praise endures forever.
The psalm clearly orients the worship toward the Gospel for the Day (Luke 17 - the healing of the 10 lepers).
Psalm 113 (E) - For comments on this psalm, see the Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost, as above.
Psalm prayer (111 - LBW) - "Merciful and gentle Lord, the crowning glory of all the saints, give us, your children, the beginning of wisdom, so that we may be filled with your mercy and that what you command we may do by the might of Jesus Christ our Lord."
The Readings
2 Kings 5:14-17 (RC) - This is but a portion of the story of the healing of Naaman, the Syrian army commander-in-chief, of his leprosy. After he was sent to Elisha by the king of Syria, who had heard that Elisha could perform miracles, Naaman was put off by Elisha's refusal to see him. When he sent a messenger to Naaman with orders to go and wash in the Jordan River "seven times," Naaman refused, until his servants persuaded him to do so. This reading begins with his obedience - dipping himself in the river seven times - and his cure, and it spells out his gratitude to the only God, the God of Israel, that he expressed with a thank-offering to Elisha. Elisha refused the gift, but Naaman would not be put off; he assured Elisha that he would offer sacrifice "to no other god than the Lord." The rest of the story, which includes Gehazi's disobedience and its consequences, is omitted.
(Note: Comments on 2 Kings 5:1-14, 15, may be located in the material for the Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany, the Lectionary Preaching Workbook III, Cycle B.)
Ruth 1:1-19a (L); 1:(1-7) 8-19a (E) - The Common lectionary employs the Book of Ruth as the first reading for the next three Sundays; it uses the Lutheran selection for Proper 24, Cycle A. The Roman Catholic ORDO omits Ruth from any of the first readings, while the Episcopal and Lutheran lectionaries have only this one selection. It tells the tragic story of Naomi's plight after the death of her husband in Moab, where she had gone to live with him during a terrible famine in Judah. Her two sons also died, and Naomi had no option but to return to Bethlehem in Judah and resettle among her relatives. Her two Moabite daughters-in-law tried to go with her; she told them to remain in Moab; Orpah did, but Ruth insisted on going back to Judah with her. The beautiful story finds expression in Ruth's words to Naomi: "Entreat me not to leave you or to return from following you; for where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God; where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord do so to me and more also if even death parts me from you."
(Note: A sermon on this text, "Round Trip to Bethlehem," appears in my Great Stories Of The Faith for the second half of Pentecost, Cycle A.)
Micah 1:2; 2:1-10 (C) - As a contemporary of Isaiah, Micah foresaw the impending fate of Israel that would result from its social sins and political corruption. Micah called upon all of the people to hear what he had to say on behalf of God; he pointed out the short-comings and the sins of the rich, recounting their greed and their lust which created injustice among the less fortunate people. Micah saw such people as schemers who were constantly making plans to enlarge their holdings at the expense of others. On their part, the people told him not to "preach of such things," nor rave against them, but the prophet remains true to his calling and tells them what is going to happen to them.
2 Timothy 2:8-13 (RC, L); 2:(3-7) 8-15 (E); 2:8-15 (C) - Despite the insistence of scholars that Paul did not write this letter, it does reflect the situation of Paul when he was imprisoned in Rome, awaiting trial and execution. Paul is in bondage, but the gospel is not bound; the word of God "is not fettered," he declares. So he suffers willingly for the sake of the saints, so that they may know the blessings of salvation in Jesus Christ. The last verses of the reading are probably an early Christian hymn, possibly a baptismal hymn, from the "if we have died with him"! "we shall also live with him" motif, as well as the "endure"! "reign with him" saying. But the last part speaks of denying Christ, who will deny us in return with a twist; we may be faithless, but Jesus will always be faithful "for he cannot deny himself." The reading would be more appropriate for All Saints Day than for this Sunday, and it does not complement the other readings.
Luke 17:11-19 (RC, E, L, C) - This gospel picks up the leprosy theme of the first reading, connecting the cleansing of the lepers to the salvific actions of God in the faith and through Jesus Christ. It also implies the notion that the grace of God is intended for all people, because at least one of the 10 men whom Jesus healed was a Samaritan. And it demonstrates the power of God to deal with seemingly hopeless situations in human life; there were, after all, 10 lepers, who must have been variously maimed, disfigured, and disabled by the dreaded disease. All 10 of them were cleansed. What is most striking in the story is that only one of the 10 returned to Jesus Christ and thanked him for what he had done for him; he knew that Jesus was responsible for his cleansing and he was grateful enough to return, prostrate himself before the Lord, and give him thanks. While this is one of the most familiar parts of Luke's gospel (it was the classic Gospel of the Day for the Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost for many centuries), it is the grace/gratitude theme that preachers may wish to preach upon, inasmuch as all of us tend to forget the grace of God, becoming ungrateful persons in the process.
Sermon Suggestions, Synopses, Sketches, Stories
Luke 17:11-19 (RC, E, L, C) - "The Grateful Response." - All 10 of the lepers, who were healed miraculously of that terrible disease, must have felt like people who had just been released from prison and a death sentence. They had heard about Jesus and his power to cure, and when they encountered Jesus, they cried out, almost in unison, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us." Jesus immediately responded, not with a command to follow Naaman into the Jordan, but strangely enough with, "Go and show yourselves to the priests." They went without hesitation and in that they did Naaman one better. Somewhere along that road, they discovered that their leprosy was gone; they were clean once again, restored in body and in social standing. It was as if they had just been delivered from eternal exile from a kind of living hell on earth. What did Jesus expect them to do? We'll never know, but we do know that only one returned to Jesus - a Samaritan - and that the other nine must have begun celebrating their liberation from the leprosy that literally was eating them alive.
1. The cry of the lepers, "Jesus, ... have mercy on us," which became the Kyrie of the Christian liturgy is virtually an automatic call to God when life gets beyond our control and our ability to deal with it. And God always answers that cry one way or another, sooner or later, just as Jesus responded to it when he was going up to Jerusalem. He gladly and gracefully receives the cry of repentant sinners, of all desperate people, "Lord, have mercy upon us."
2. That we have often prayed for God's grace with the prayer of the lepers is obvious, but we have also been as ungrateful to God as were the nine. God has given us so much in this life, but we tend to believe that we have earned all that we have - life, family and friends, health and happiness, work and security, salvation and hope - and we simply forget to give God thanks for his unmerited gifts and blessings to us.
3. But that's now how it should be. James S. Stewart, in his sermon, "Grace and Gratitude," writes: "Let us try to imagine it now, as it might have been, here in St. Luke's narrative. A mile or two down the road, that thrilling indescribable moment when they realized their healing: the sudden surge of gratitude, 10 lepers praising God for Christ the great Physician - 'We are clean! O blessed Healer! We must go back and thank him. Let us retrace our steps without delay and find him. For out of the depths we cried, and God heard us; out of the darkness of hell, and he has answered us.' And so back they come, all 10 of them, chanting their tenfold psalm until, yonder is Jesus, and they run to him, and fall down before him, crying, 'Blessed Jesus! Heaven-sent Physician! Thanks be to God.' " "But no," says James Stewart. "That is not the story ..." But that's the way it ought to be with all of us in light of God's grace toward us in Jesus Christ.
4. All Christian worship - liturgy and life - is about God's grace and the grateful response of human beings, who are able to sing (Psalm 111), "Hallelujah! I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart, in the assembly of the upright, in the congregation." And then, quite likely, we will go into the world gratefully to witness to his love and grace in Jesus Christ and to do works of mercy in his holy Name.
2 Kings 5:14-17 (RC) - Obedience."
1. Imagine! The commanding general of Syria's armies was saved by the advice of his slave, who told him to obey Elisha's command.
2. Naaman was not only a proud man; he was also a very wise man, and he did what was suggested to him. He dipped himself in the Jordan seven times and was cleansed. His cleansing is a story of humility and obedience that opened him up to God's healing power.
3. What of Jesus' word, "Come unto me" and the addendum to Mark's gospel, "He who believes and is baptized will be saved?" Do not daily recognition of our sins and repentance enable us to participate in our baptism, to come to him for cleansing, obediently, again and again?
4. And just as miraculously as he cleansed Naaman and as Jesus healed the 10 lepers, he removes our sin and guilt and makes us clean and whole once again.
Ruth 1:1-19a (C) - "The Soap Opera."
1. That's what the story of Naomi, Orpah, and Ruth sounds like, doesn't it? Complication, tragedy, love, faithfulness, and intrigue blend together in it.
2. How could one person experience and endure so much calamity in a lifetime? After her husband and her sons died in their "home in exile," she had to make the lonely trip back to Bethlehem. She had no future without family and friends.
3. Wouldn't it only happen in a soap opera that a young woman would leave her ancestral home and country and go with her widowed mother-in-law to a strange land and an uncertain future? Ruth really loved Naomi, didn't she? One doesn't see that kind of love in a soap opera very often!
4. In love and hope, the two women made the journey from death to life - new life - in Bethlehem. Naomi's desperation was supported by Ruth's love, which is so much like the selfless love which God gives all of us in Christ. That love is the truth of the gospel; it is no soap opera. (Again, see the sermon, "Road Trip to Bethlehem" in my Great Stories Of The Faith, C.S.S.)
2 Timothy 2:8-13 (RC, L); 2:(3-7) 8-15 (E); 2:8-15 (C) - "Remember The Risen Lord."
1. Remember the gospel of the dead and risen Lord, Jesus Christ. That's Paul's exhortation to all of us.
2. Remember your participation in his death and resurrection. That's further advice to all of us.
3. Remember your baptism and repent daily of your sins. That's the counsel of the church to the faithful.
4. Remember - even and especially when you are unfaithful and sin - that he is always faithful to God and to us.
The Twenty-first Sunday after Pentecost and All Saints' Sunday will coincide with each other on November 1, 1992. Depending on the lectionary followed and the calendar year, it may fall on other Sundays in other years. All Saints' Day will take precedence in most denominations and congregations. There will be sufficient publicity in the media about All Saints' Day so that it will be on the minds of many of the people who go to worship in most churches on November 1. It has become such a popular festival in Protestant, as well as Roman Catholic churches, that it will tend to dominate, as well as inculcate, the planning of worship and preaching on November 1.
For all intents and purposes, All Saints' Day has become a festival for the entire church triumphant, rather than a day of celebration and remembrance for unnamed martyrs of the past. "Ordinary" saints used to be remembered on November 2, as a kind of "second order" of saints. Congregations now read lists of those who have died in the past year, may have photographs of all former "saints" who have died in the Christian faith placed around the building. In some parts of Christendom, there are almost extravagant celebrations for the departed saints of their communities, with cemeteries crowded with the living friends and relatives of those long, or recently, dead. All Saints' Day now generates a celebration of the total body of Christ, the church triumphant and the church militant, of those who have believed, and do believe, that Christ is Lord.
The first Sunday in November also sees "the beginning of the end" of the church year; not only is the church coming to the conclusion of its calendar year, but it is also beginning a recital and something of a count-down, of the "last things" connected to the gospel of our Lord. His reign has begun and, in God's time, he will return to bring in the fullness of the kingdom. The theological focus of the gospel, therefore, from All Saints' Day to Christ the King and on into the Advent season, focuses on the expected parousia and the kingdom that will never end.
The Prayer Of The Day
The Prayer of the Day in The Lutheran Book of Worship must have been prepared with the Gospel for the Twenty-first Sunday after Pentecost (Luke 17:11-19 - the story of the 10 lepers whom Jesus healed) in mind: "Almighty God, source of every blessing, your generous goodness comes to us anew every day. By the work of your Spirit lead us to acknowledge your goodness, give thanks for your benefits, and serve you in willing obedience; through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord."
The Psalm Of The Day
Psalm 98:1-4 (RC) - The various lectionaries and worship books make multiple use of this psalm. The Roman Catholic ORDO uses it as a responsory to the first lesson no less than seven times in the three-year cycle of readings. In this psalm, Cantate Domino - "Sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things" - the writer sings of how God has won the victory "with his right hand and his holy arm." Not only that, but he has made known this victory to the ends of the earth. His song is anything but a lament. The last verses call upon the faithful to sing a new song.
Psalm 111 (L) - Here is a Hallel psalm that immediately offers thanks to God for his loving grace:
I will give thanks to the Lord
with my whole heart,
in the assembly of the upright,
in the congregation.
After praising God for the greatness of his deeds, they are recounted specifically, culminating with:
He sent redemption to his people;
he commanded his covenant forever;
holy and awesome is his name.
And it ends on a familiar note:
The fear of the Lord
is the beginning of wisdom;
those who act accordingly
have a good understanding.
His praise endures forever.
The psalm clearly orients the worship toward the Gospel for the Day (Luke 17 - the healing of the 10 lepers).
Psalm 113 (E) - For comments on this psalm, see the Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost, as above.
Psalm prayer (111 - LBW) - "Merciful and gentle Lord, the crowning glory of all the saints, give us, your children, the beginning of wisdom, so that we may be filled with your mercy and that what you command we may do by the might of Jesus Christ our Lord."
The Readings
2 Kings 5:14-17 (RC) - This is but a portion of the story of the healing of Naaman, the Syrian army commander-in-chief, of his leprosy. After he was sent to Elisha by the king of Syria, who had heard that Elisha could perform miracles, Naaman was put off by Elisha's refusal to see him. When he sent a messenger to Naaman with orders to go and wash in the Jordan River "seven times," Naaman refused, until his servants persuaded him to do so. This reading begins with his obedience - dipping himself in the river seven times - and his cure, and it spells out his gratitude to the only God, the God of Israel, that he expressed with a thank-offering to Elisha. Elisha refused the gift, but Naaman would not be put off; he assured Elisha that he would offer sacrifice "to no other god than the Lord." The rest of the story, which includes Gehazi's disobedience and its consequences, is omitted.
(Note: Comments on 2 Kings 5:1-14, 15, may be located in the material for the Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany, the Lectionary Preaching Workbook III, Cycle B.)
Ruth 1:1-19a (L); 1:(1-7) 8-19a (E) - The Common lectionary employs the Book of Ruth as the first reading for the next three Sundays; it uses the Lutheran selection for Proper 24, Cycle A. The Roman Catholic ORDO omits Ruth from any of the first readings, while the Episcopal and Lutheran lectionaries have only this one selection. It tells the tragic story of Naomi's plight after the death of her husband in Moab, where she had gone to live with him during a terrible famine in Judah. Her two sons also died, and Naomi had no option but to return to Bethlehem in Judah and resettle among her relatives. Her two Moabite daughters-in-law tried to go with her; she told them to remain in Moab; Orpah did, but Ruth insisted on going back to Judah with her. The beautiful story finds expression in Ruth's words to Naomi: "Entreat me not to leave you or to return from following you; for where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God; where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord do so to me and more also if even death parts me from you."
(Note: A sermon on this text, "Round Trip to Bethlehem," appears in my Great Stories Of The Faith for the second half of Pentecost, Cycle A.)
Micah 1:2; 2:1-10 (C) - As a contemporary of Isaiah, Micah foresaw the impending fate of Israel that would result from its social sins and political corruption. Micah called upon all of the people to hear what he had to say on behalf of God; he pointed out the short-comings and the sins of the rich, recounting their greed and their lust which created injustice among the less fortunate people. Micah saw such people as schemers who were constantly making plans to enlarge their holdings at the expense of others. On their part, the people told him not to "preach of such things," nor rave against them, but the prophet remains true to his calling and tells them what is going to happen to them.
2 Timothy 2:8-13 (RC, L); 2:(3-7) 8-15 (E); 2:8-15 (C) - Despite the insistence of scholars that Paul did not write this letter, it does reflect the situation of Paul when he was imprisoned in Rome, awaiting trial and execution. Paul is in bondage, but the gospel is not bound; the word of God "is not fettered," he declares. So he suffers willingly for the sake of the saints, so that they may know the blessings of salvation in Jesus Christ. The last verses of the reading are probably an early Christian hymn, possibly a baptismal hymn, from the "if we have died with him"! "we shall also live with him" motif, as well as the "endure"! "reign with him" saying. But the last part speaks of denying Christ, who will deny us in return with a twist; we may be faithless, but Jesus will always be faithful "for he cannot deny himself." The reading would be more appropriate for All Saints Day than for this Sunday, and it does not complement the other readings.
Luke 17:11-19 (RC, E, L, C) - This gospel picks up the leprosy theme of the first reading, connecting the cleansing of the lepers to the salvific actions of God in the faith and through Jesus Christ. It also implies the notion that the grace of God is intended for all people, because at least one of the 10 men whom Jesus healed was a Samaritan. And it demonstrates the power of God to deal with seemingly hopeless situations in human life; there were, after all, 10 lepers, who must have been variously maimed, disfigured, and disabled by the dreaded disease. All 10 of them were cleansed. What is most striking in the story is that only one of the 10 returned to Jesus Christ and thanked him for what he had done for him; he knew that Jesus was responsible for his cleansing and he was grateful enough to return, prostrate himself before the Lord, and give him thanks. While this is one of the most familiar parts of Luke's gospel (it was the classic Gospel of the Day for the Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost for many centuries), it is the grace/gratitude theme that preachers may wish to preach upon, inasmuch as all of us tend to forget the grace of God, becoming ungrateful persons in the process.
Sermon Suggestions, Synopses, Sketches, Stories
Luke 17:11-19 (RC, E, L, C) - "The Grateful Response." - All 10 of the lepers, who were healed miraculously of that terrible disease, must have felt like people who had just been released from prison and a death sentence. They had heard about Jesus and his power to cure, and when they encountered Jesus, they cried out, almost in unison, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us." Jesus immediately responded, not with a command to follow Naaman into the Jordan, but strangely enough with, "Go and show yourselves to the priests." They went without hesitation and in that they did Naaman one better. Somewhere along that road, they discovered that their leprosy was gone; they were clean once again, restored in body and in social standing. It was as if they had just been delivered from eternal exile from a kind of living hell on earth. What did Jesus expect them to do? We'll never know, but we do know that only one returned to Jesus - a Samaritan - and that the other nine must have begun celebrating their liberation from the leprosy that literally was eating them alive.
1. The cry of the lepers, "Jesus, ... have mercy on us," which became the Kyrie of the Christian liturgy is virtually an automatic call to God when life gets beyond our control and our ability to deal with it. And God always answers that cry one way or another, sooner or later, just as Jesus responded to it when he was going up to Jerusalem. He gladly and gracefully receives the cry of repentant sinners, of all desperate people, "Lord, have mercy upon us."
2. That we have often prayed for God's grace with the prayer of the lepers is obvious, but we have also been as ungrateful to God as were the nine. God has given us so much in this life, but we tend to believe that we have earned all that we have - life, family and friends, health and happiness, work and security, salvation and hope - and we simply forget to give God thanks for his unmerited gifts and blessings to us.
3. But that's now how it should be. James S. Stewart, in his sermon, "Grace and Gratitude," writes: "Let us try to imagine it now, as it might have been, here in St. Luke's narrative. A mile or two down the road, that thrilling indescribable moment when they realized their healing: the sudden surge of gratitude, 10 lepers praising God for Christ the great Physician - 'We are clean! O blessed Healer! We must go back and thank him. Let us retrace our steps without delay and find him. For out of the depths we cried, and God heard us; out of the darkness of hell, and he has answered us.' And so back they come, all 10 of them, chanting their tenfold psalm until, yonder is Jesus, and they run to him, and fall down before him, crying, 'Blessed Jesus! Heaven-sent Physician! Thanks be to God.' " "But no," says James Stewart. "That is not the story ..." But that's the way it ought to be with all of us in light of God's grace toward us in Jesus Christ.
4. All Christian worship - liturgy and life - is about God's grace and the grateful response of human beings, who are able to sing (Psalm 111), "Hallelujah! I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart, in the assembly of the upright, in the congregation." And then, quite likely, we will go into the world gratefully to witness to his love and grace in Jesus Christ and to do works of mercy in his holy Name.
2 Kings 5:14-17 (RC) - Obedience."
1. Imagine! The commanding general of Syria's armies was saved by the advice of his slave, who told him to obey Elisha's command.
2. Naaman was not only a proud man; he was also a very wise man, and he did what was suggested to him. He dipped himself in the Jordan seven times and was cleansed. His cleansing is a story of humility and obedience that opened him up to God's healing power.
3. What of Jesus' word, "Come unto me" and the addendum to Mark's gospel, "He who believes and is baptized will be saved?" Do not daily recognition of our sins and repentance enable us to participate in our baptism, to come to him for cleansing, obediently, again and again?
4. And just as miraculously as he cleansed Naaman and as Jesus healed the 10 lepers, he removes our sin and guilt and makes us clean and whole once again.
Ruth 1:1-19a (C) - "The Soap Opera."
1. That's what the story of Naomi, Orpah, and Ruth sounds like, doesn't it? Complication, tragedy, love, faithfulness, and intrigue blend together in it.
2. How could one person experience and endure so much calamity in a lifetime? After her husband and her sons died in their "home in exile," she had to make the lonely trip back to Bethlehem. She had no future without family and friends.
3. Wouldn't it only happen in a soap opera that a young woman would leave her ancestral home and country and go with her widowed mother-in-law to a strange land and an uncertain future? Ruth really loved Naomi, didn't she? One doesn't see that kind of love in a soap opera very often!
4. In love and hope, the two women made the journey from death to life - new life - in Bethlehem. Naomi's desperation was supported by Ruth's love, which is so much like the selfless love which God gives all of us in Christ. That love is the truth of the gospel; it is no soap opera. (Again, see the sermon, "Road Trip to Bethlehem" in my Great Stories Of The Faith, C.S.S.)
2 Timothy 2:8-13 (RC, L); 2:(3-7) 8-15 (E); 2:8-15 (C) - "Remember The Risen Lord."
1. Remember the gospel of the dead and risen Lord, Jesus Christ. That's Paul's exhortation to all of us.
2. Remember your participation in his death and resurrection. That's further advice to all of us.
3. Remember your baptism and repent daily of your sins. That's the counsel of the church to the faithful.
4. Remember - even and especially when you are unfaithful and sin - that he is always faithful to God and to us.
