Month: September 2025

“Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it?” – Luke 15:4 [part of the Gospel reading for this upcoming Sunday, the Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost, RCL, Year C]. Jesus posed this question to Pharisees and scribes who were grumbling about his dinner companions—tax collectors and sinners who had drawn near to hear him teach. The religious leaders found his table fellowship scandalous, his choice of company questionable. So Jesus told them a story. As was His practice, He began with a question—essentially, “Which one of…

The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: “Come, go down to the potter’s house, and there I will let you hear my words.” So I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was working at his wheel. The vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as seemed good to him [Jeremiah 18:1-4, from this Sunday’s Old Testament reading, the Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost, RCL, Year C]. While on my recent pilgrimage to Turkey, in the ancient region of Cappadocia, my fellow sojourners and I encountered a potter’s workshop that seemed to exist outside of…