Break Open the Word

The Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 22 - 2 October 2011 Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20 Psalm 19 or Isaiah 5:1-7 Psalm 80:7-14 Philippians 3:4b-14 St. Matthew 21:33-46                                                                                     Background:   Baptism None of the readings for today are in anyway related to baptism other than by inference, but I choose to comment on it due to the fact that we will be celebrating a Baptism at St. Mark’s on this particular Sunday.   Essential to this liturgy is the experience that the choir and I had while at Salisbury Cathedral in July of this year, where we participated in the baptism of several infants at the cathedral.   What struck me, and what ought to form the manner in which we baptize, was the stational nature of the liturgy that day, moving from the doors (where the candidates were signed and inducted into the catechumenate) to the lectern, where the Word was celebrated, to the Font, where the water was ble

The Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost - Proper 21, 11 September 2011 Exodus 17:1-7 Psalm 78:1-4, 12-16 Ezekiel 18:1-4, 25-32 Psalm 25:1-8 Philippians 2:1-13 Saint Matthew 21:23-32 Exodus 17:1-7 From the wilderness of Sin the whole congregation of the Israelites journeyed by stages, as the Lord commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. The people quarreled with Moses, and said, "Give us water to drink." Moses said to them, "Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord?" But the people thirsted there for water; and the people complained against Moses and said, "Why did you bring us out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and livestock with thirst?" So Moses cried out to the Lord, "What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me." The Lord said to Moses, "Go on ahead of the people, and take some of the elders of Israel with you; take in your hand the staff with