Not presently serving in a local congregation, I do not get as many opportunities to preach as I did when I was leading worship weekly, but I still occasionally get invited to fill in here and there. This past weekend (the Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany), I was invited to offer the sermon for a service in a local retirement community. I started reading the lectionary texts appointed for the day a few weeks ago. Honestly, I think if I had been serving or speaking in a local congregation, I would have stood up, read the text from Isaiah 58, and then sat back down (see
Isaiah 58:1-12). Given what is happening in our world, in our country right now, it seemed fitting.
However, instead of going with the Hebrew prophet, I stuck with the words of Jesus. The fifth chapter of the Gospel according to Matthew begins the so-called Sermon on the Mount, one of the more well known passages written as direct teaching from Jesus. Chapter 5 starts off with the well known Beatitudes, but the complete teaching is much longer. The assigned reading for this past Sunday is the next immediate section of Jesus's teachings (see
Matthew 5:13-20).
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