Prior homilies or sermons of mine are occasionally downloaded by readers. Noticing this, I anticipate that some of those preparing to preach (or offer a reading) on an upcoming Sunday might benefit from the perspective I have taken regarding the Lectionary readings for a particular day. I am therefore offering (when I can) a prior text that I have used for the occasion. I will try to do this on Sunday evenings or Mondays believing that there might interest in these texts being made available. When I have one prepared, I will also offer an accompanying handout (in pdf format) in case these may also be helpful.

For this coming Sunday, June 28, I offer a link to my web post regarding the Feast of the Presentation, where I offered reflection on Genesis 22 and the story of Abraham and Isaac, featured in Track 1 for Proper 8 A. This reading and its story is worth attention, I think, since it is so significant, and appears so infrequently in our Sunday Lectionary.

The image above from Caravaggio reflects what continues to be our natural and contemporary response to a disturbing aspect of the story it depicts. Other images might be chosen for a handout, which might more directly correlate with theological reflection on other aspects of the story, especially upon God’s role in that particular historical context where the God’s bidding to Abraham may have seemed less surprising.

The link for it is here.