discipleship – A Preacher’s Ponderings

Temptation

First Sunday in Lent; 26 February 2023; Lent 1A (RCL); Genesis 2:15-17, 3:1-7; Psalm 32; Romans 5:12-19; Matthew 4:1-11.

I had a Cambodian friend who read this passage in Genesis as a coming-of-age story. According to him, children in Cambodia were not gendered until about the age of five, “when they put their pants on.” It’s about the same age there were expected to begin to know right from wrong. Adam and Eve recognize their nakedness once they have eaten the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. That throws an interesting light on the story — temptation as a step along the way to growing up.

. . . to follow me.

1 March 2015
Second Sunday in Lent
Lent 2B (RCL)
Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16
Psalm 22:22-30
Romans 4:13-25
Mark 8:31-38

I have no doubt that I have preached a sermon (or two) on this passage, in which I’ve said something like, “We’re lucky to live in a time and place where we won’t be asked to die for our faith.” After learning of the deaths of the 21 martyrs of Lybia, I don’t think I’ll be so glib anymore. It isn’t happening here quite like this, but Christianity is becoming more and more a counter cultural movement in Europe, and the assumption of a cultural Christian background no longer holds in the US the way it used to do. So, what does it mean to take up one’s cross? Continue reading “. . . to follow me.”