Author Archives: edithmhumphrey

Readings: Matthew 9:1-8; Romans 12:6-14; Jeremiah 31:27-34; Jonah 3:1-10 “To err is human; to forgive is divine.” Indeed! Our Lord and God Jesus Christ both fulfills and breaks down this dichotomy, as we follow him through many episodes in his earthly life. He was the one human being who did not err—at least, in termsContinue reading “Forgiveness and the Authority of God’s Children: Sixth Sunday of Matthew”

Feast of St. Mary Magdalene This Friday coming is the feast day, both in the Western and Eastern Church, of St. Mary Magdalene. It is a particularly poignant time for me, since it is the name-day of my  firstborn daughter, Meredith (Mary Magdalene), who was the first of our family to be chrismated and receivedContinue reading “Feast of St. Mary Magdalene”

Readings: Romans 2:10-16; Matthew 4:18-23; Isa 53:2-5 This weekend, two weeks beyond Pentecost, we get into the brass tacks of our faith, and commence our reading of Matthew. The particular emphasis of the gospel of Matthew is one that has been especially difficult for western Protestants. It is in this gospel that we hear ofContinue reading “Second Sunday after Pentecost: Discipleship and Doom”

Acts 2:1-11; John 7:37-52; 8:12; Genesis 11:1-10; Joel 2:28-32; Ezek. 36:24-28. Seeing! Feeling and Tasting! Hearing! Pentecost is a multi-sensory feast, just as our liturgy engages all the senses. Its narrative in Acts 2 has connections with multiple passages in both the Old and New Testaments: some of these are made obvious, and others areContinue reading “Holy Pentecost: Water, Light and Living Words”

John 9:1-38; Acts 16:16-35; Psalm 2; Daniel 7 As we move towards Ascension Day, that high point of the great story when our Lord reveals his might and glory, takes our humanity up on high, and presents it to the Father, we hear, on this Sunday of the blind man, two stories of conflict betweenContinue reading “At Odds With the Power-That-Be! The Sunday of the Blind Man”

John 5:1-15; Acts 9:32-42; Micah 4:1-7 St. John Chrysostom, in his 37th Homily on the Gospel of John, reminds us of how the Scriptures speak to us: “GREAT is the profit of the divine Scriptures, and all-sufficient is the aid which comes from them. And Paul declared this when he said, “Whatsoever things were writtenContinue reading “The Sunday of the Paralytic”

John 20:19-31; 1 John 1:1-7 Genesis 2; Exodus 3 The Lord is risen! Truly, he is risen! This Sunday we hear about the response of that little group in the upper room: “When they saw the risen Lord, they were glad.” And we also hear the words of the elder John, who draws us, inContinue reading “Seeing is Believing: Sunday of St. Thomas”

Philippian 4:4-9; John 12:1-18 Numbers 22; Zechariah 9:9 When fishes flew and forests walked And figs grew upon thorn, Some moment when the moon was blood Then surely I was born; With monstrous head and sickening cry And ears like errant wings, The devil’s walking parody Of all four-footed things. The tattered outlaw of theContinue reading “Palm Sunday: Being a Donkey”

Readings: Hebrews 6:13-20; Mark 9:17-31 Genesis 14:14-20; Genesis 22:16-18; Isaiah 52: 13-53:6 Usually, when we hear the word “forerunner,” we think of John the Baptizer, who prepared for the coming of the Lord.  But our epistle reading for this fourth Sunday of Lent tells us that we have an even greater Forerunner—Jesus himself, the oneContinue reading “Fourth Sunday of Lent and St. John Climacus: Following the Foremost Forerunner”

Hebrews 1:10-2:3; Mark 2:1-12; Psalm 101 (102 MT), Daniel 7. More than twenty years ago, when I was fairly new to teaching, I had one year in which I cobbled together four lectureships at different institutions.  Each of them had a different character—one was secular, one was evangelical, one was a liberal arts college runContinue reading “Without Precedent! (Second Sunday of Lent)”