Sermons by Rev. Jason S. Glombicki (Page 56)

We are almost done. Next Sunday is the last Sunday of the church year. As the church year changes, we get to move on to a new gospel. You see, we follow a three-year cycle of readings called the Revised Common Lectionary. Each year we focus on a different synoptic gospel – Matthew, Mark, or Luke – and John’s gospel is spread across all three years. While similar in some ways, each Gospel emphasizes something different. This year we’ve explored Matthew on 38 of the 52 Sundays, that’s 73% of the year. In comparison, next year we’ll hear from Matthew only once. If you’ve been here regularly, you may feel like an expert on Matthew. Since you’re knowledgeable, it’s time for a “pop quiz!”…

In today’s gospel, it’s wedding season! That means there will be a big party! In Jesus’ time, the wedding feast was an enormous communal celebration. Weddings were not about personal choice or lavish expense. Instead, weddings celebrated new life and commitment. Not just the new life and commitment of the couple, but the rebirth of the entire community. But, at today’s wedding, there was one problem –oil; more specifically, olive oil…

It’s like Jesus understood the future when he said, “You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” Maybe Jesus knew that 2016’s word of the year would be “post-truth.”[1] Perhaps he anticipated the rise of nationalism, the flood of fake news, and cultivation of alternative facts. After hearing the Judeans’ response to Jesus’s statement, we discover that their world and our world are remarkably similar…