13th Sunday after Pentecost; Proper 17; Ordinary 22; 26 August 2012

After our five-week sojourn in the sixth chapter of John’s gospel, we are back with dear Mark and his pell-mell tilt through the life and ministry of Jesus. I love Mark. Everything happens “immediately” and I always feel a little out of breath as I read along.

This week, Jesus is having a bit of a barney with the local religious experts, regarding whether or not his students are observing the traditions with adequate fervor. I have a small tendency toward rubricism myself, and so I can easily identify with the Pharisees on a day when I’m feeling exceptionally honest.

12th Sunday after Pentecost; Proper 16; Ordinary 21; 19 August 2012

My parents tried to elevate my taste, truly they did, and they mostly succeeded pretty well. In some things, however, I remain staunchly middlebrow. My taste in music, for instance, tends closer to Lynyrd Skynyrd then it does to Mahler, and I am a huge fan of the movies of Will Ferrell.

Ferrell’s movie Taladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby contains a scene in which the titular character is saying grace, and insists upon praying to baby Jesus. His wife reminds him that Jesus didn’t remain a baby, but grew up to be a man, and he responds, “Look, I like the Christmas Jesus best, and I'm sayin' grace. When you say grace, you can say it to Grownup Jesus or Teenage Jesus or Bearded Jesus or whoever you want.” 

11th Sunday after Pentecost; Proper 15; Ordinary 20; 12 August 2012

This week’s gospel lesson contains one of the “hard sayings” of Jesus, both for his original audience and for today’s Christians, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.” 

Gross!

Going home

One of the overarching themes of the current issue of Liturgy is that contemporary life involves us in life transitions which are greater in both number and in type than our forebears had occasion to experience. Ritual practitioners are, therefore, called upon to develop new rituals in order to observe and celebrate (or lament) transitions for which our several prayerbooks offer no resources.