Many of you know that I wrote a book this past year, called Childish Thinking, in which I try to get us to grow in our understanding of the Bible. So today on the first Sunday of Advent, I'd like us to look at the Season of Advent from a higher perspective...
Well today on the last Sunday in Ordinary Time, we are celebrating a feast day on the church calendar. The church calendar that we follow each and every week was established that the Council of Nicea all the way back in the year 325 ad. So it's almost 1,700 years old. The calendar established the dates for Advent and Christmas, Lent and Easter, and various feast days, like Epiphany, Pentecost, and Palm Sunday.
Our Gospel reading for today is known as Jesus's Parable of the Talents. This is where we get our word 'talent" today, from this Bible story. Back in Jesus's day, a talent was a large sum of money. A talent was equivalent to around $1,000 today.
Well, we gather here each and every Sunday, to express our gratitude to God, and to hear the teachings of Jesus so that we may more fully follow in his steps and in his way of life. Regardless of any temporary situations we may be going through in our nation, or in our world, the teachings of Jesus remain constant and eternal. And that is why these teachings have endured. More than 2000 years later, they are still relevant in our lives today.
Well, as I mentioned at the top of the service, today we are celebrating All Saints Day. It's a day for us to honor and to celebrate all of our loved ones who have died, and to remember that their light is still with us. All Saints Day therefore is not a day of mourning and sadness. It's a day of celebration.
|
Archives
May 2024
|