Grace Cathedral
Grace Cathedral is an Episcopal church in San Francisco. A house of prayer for all people, and a center for social justice, the arts and service.
Grace Cathedral, San Francisco, CA 2C4
3 Epiphany (Year C) 11:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. Eucharist
Sunday 23 January 2022
Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10
Psalm 19
1 Corinthians 12:12-31a
Luke 4:14-21
Today I am going to talk about why I love the Bible.[i] But before we get to this, let’s study today’s gospel. It shows us how Jesus loved the Bible too.
Last week John told the story of how Jesus’ public ministry began in unimaginable abundance and joy at a wedding in Cana. Remember Jesus brings nine hundred bottles worth of wine to the party? Today we have Luke’s completely different approach to how Jesus started really being Jesus for the people around him.
Luke shows incredible care in telling this story. It both introduces Jesus and summarizes his life. After his baptism by John and being tempted in the wilderness for forty days by the devil, Jesus returns to Galilee filled with the power of the spirit.
[i] I suppose part of my love for the Bible is related to my love of books. In fifth grade on the first day of summer at day camp we had a wrestling class. I fell back with all my weight on my extended arm and broke it in three places. I spent the next three months pretty much alone, with a cast from the tips of my fingers to my shoulder, constantly reading.
Books introduced me to whole new worlds. Science fascinated me. I read about botany, physiology, ecology, astronomy, physics, math, engineering, new space technologies, geography, human sciences like anthropology. I read poetry, myths and stories. Unlike a regular conversation books have been carefully edited and refined. I discovered that the best most powerful thoughts about our human situation come out of books. I learned that almost every form of writing reveals something about God.
Following a friend’s suggestion Martin Luther King called a young singer named Coretta Scott out of the blue to introduce himself and to invite her out. They had never met before. He seemed confident and she was doubtful. But soon they were seeing each other often. They would drive to the shoreline near Boston, eat clams and walk by the sea. They attended the Boston Symphony and heard Arthur Rubenstein playing the piano. They went skating, walking together through public parks and they fell in love.[i]
[i] Stephen B. Oates, Let the Trumpet Sound: The Life of Martin Luther King, Jr. (NY: Harper & Row, 1982) 41-3.
“When you pass through the waters, I will be with you… When you walk through fire… the flame shall not consume you” (Isa. 43).
This week for the first time in my life people are asking the question, “is the United States on a path toward civil war?”i Were the Capitol riots on January 6, 2021 an insignificant deviation from our tradition of a peaceful transfer of authority, or was this the beginning of a process that will dissolve democracy as we know it?
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Grace Cathedral, San Francisco, CA 2C4
3 Epiphany (Year C) 11:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. Eucharist
Sunday 23 January 2022
Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10
Psalm 19
1 Corinthians 12:12-31a
Luke 4:14-21
Today I am going to talk about why I love the Bible.[i] But before we get to this, let’s study today’s gospel. It shows us how Jesus loved the Bible too.
Last week John told the story of how Jesus’ public ministry began in unimaginable abundance and joy at a wedding in Cana. Remember Jesus brings nine hundred bottles worth of wine to the party? Today we have Luke’s completely different approach to how Jesus started really being Jesus for the people around him.
Luke shows incredible care in telling this story. It both introduces Jesus and summarizes his life. After his baptism by John and being tempted in the wilderness for forty days by the devil, Jesus returns to Galilee filled with the power of the spirit.
[i] I suppose part of my love for the Bible is related to my love of books. In fifth grade on the first day of summer at day camp we had a wrestling class. I fell back with all my weight on my extended arm and broke it in three places. I spent the next three months pretty much alone, with a cast from the tips of my fingers to my shoulder, constantly reading.
Books introduced me to whole new worlds. Science fascinated me. I read about botany, physiology, ecology, astronomy, physics, math, engineering, new space technologies, geography, human sciences like anthropology. I read poetry, myths and stories. Unlike a regular conversation books have been carefully edited and refined. I discovered that the best most powerful thoughts about our human situation come out of books. I learned that almost every form of writing reveals something about God.
Following a friend’s suggestion Martin Luther King called a young singer named Coretta Scott out of the blue to introduce himself and to invite her out. They had never met before. He seemed confident and she was doubtful. But soon they were seeing each other often. They would drive to the shoreline near Boston, eat clams and walk by the sea. They attended the Boston Symphony and heard Arthur Rubenstein playing the piano. They went skating, walking together through public parks and they fell in love.[i]
[i] Stephen B. Oates, Let the Trumpet Sound: The Life of Martin Luther King, Jr. (NY: Harper & Row, 1982) 41-3.
“When you pass through the waters, I will be with you… When you walk through fire… the flame shall not consume you” (Isa. 43).
This week for the first time in my life people are asking the question, “is the United States on a path toward civil war?”i Were the Capitol riots on January 6, 2021 an insignificant deviation from our tradition of a peaceful transfer of authority, or was this the beginning of a process that will dissolve democracy as we know it?