a late start

I'd like to that the busyness of preparations for TS Ida kept me from posting my thoughts on 28b yesterday, but that probably isn't true. It seems we have made it through with a lot of rain, but our coastal and river communities are all reporting in that things are OK. Thanks be to God for cold water, cool air, and a weakened Ida.

The real reason I didn't post yesterday has a lot more to do with the lessons that anything else. I must have read them 5 or 6 times yesterday. Each time, I started with the Collect and by the time I was finished I wasn't really sure that ALL holy Scripture had been written for our learning. Or better said, perhaps not all verses were meant to stand alone for Sunday morning lessons at certain times of the year.

The lesson from Mark, for example, makes little sense outside of the context of a) Holy Week, b) last weeks lesson, and c) the larger "Little Apocalypse" of Mark. So why have it? What purpose does it serve on the last Sunday of Ordinary Time (Next week is actually the end, but it is Christ the King Sunday and we don't have to wear green).

The semi-continuous reading from Hebrews is fascinating, and would do well for a Bible Study, but I just don't think it preaches. And Daniel, don't get me started on Daniel.

So there you have it. I'm getting a late start on sermon prep this week not because of any weather event or busyness of life, but because I have no clue as to where to start with these lessons. O God, help me to read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest these lessons so that I have something to say to your people.