Neli ML

Christ the King, 2023 Matthew 25,31-40 Rev. Neli Miranda Today we celebrate the last Sunday after Pentecost and with this celebration, we are closing a cycle in which we have lived our Christian spirituality for a year. Our spiritual pilgrimage started last year in Advent Season when we prepared ourselves to receive God’s visitation in a newborn, baby Jesus born on Christmas Day.   That day, we joyfully joined the choir of angels to praise God for Jesus’ birth, saying “Glory to God in highest heaven, and peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased” (Luke 2,14). Then, we joined the shepherds who hurriedly went to Bethlehem where we found a singular, divine, human scene: Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger.   What an extraordinary scene, the glory of God lying in a manger!               Later, on Epiphany Day, together with the magi who came from the East, we knelt down, paid homage to baby J...

  “ Burying as Resistance” Rev. Betsey Moe 19 November 2023 St. Alban Episcopal Mission, Antigua Guatemala Matthew 25:14-30  14 “For it is as if a man, going on a journey, summoned his slaves and entrusted his property to them; 15 to one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. At once 16 the one who had received the five talents went off and traded with them and made five more talents. 17 In the same way, the one who had the two talents made two more talents. 18 But the one who had received the one talent went off and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money. 19 After a long time the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them.20 Then the one who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five more talents, saying, ‘Master, you handed over to me five talents; see, I have made five more talents.’ 21...

  Twenty-fourth Sunday after Pentecost 2023 Matthew 25,1-13 Rev. Neli Miranda   When was the last time you attended a wedding?  I attended a wedding two months ago and it was beautiful! For me, weddings always stimulate my senses with their wonderful images: the bride with her beautiful dress, the elegant bridegroom, the beauty of the religious ceremony, the party, the music, the food; in short, weddings always fill us with life, hope and joy! In today’s Gospel Jesus tells us a parable about a wedding celebration and we find that, despite the cultural distance, weddings in Jesus' time had many similarities to our celebrations in the 21 st century.   In Jesus’ time, a wedding celebration involved several significant acts, including a great feast in the community. Some facts that might surprise us is that while the groom was usually 18-20 years old, the bride was only 13-16 years old. There was also a written contract that stipulated the bride-price and dowry...

  All Saints’ Day. October 5, 2023 Revelation 7:9-17 Rev. Neli Miranda   All Saints’ Day, celebrated on Nov. 1, commemorates all saints known and unknown. This celebration began very early in Christian piety to celebrate the lives of martyrs, women and men who had remained faithful in the face of persecution and offered their lives in service to God. All Faithful Departed Day, celebrated on Nov. 2, is an extension of All Saints’ Day to celebrate the lives of our beloved ones, family and friends who have died in the Christian faith. In our Anglican tradition, many congregations commemorate A ll Faithful Departed together with All Saints’ Day.   Our liturgical order allows us to celebrate All Saints’ Day on the Sunday following November 1.   Thus, today we honor and rejoice in all those who through the ages have faithfully served God, especially our beloved ones who have preceded us into the eternal kingdom, where there is no more pain and suffering but full ...

Twenty - second  Sunday after Pentecost 2023 By Tom Ward O Lord!  How long?  Have compassion on your servants!... Let your work be manifest to your servants, and your glorious power to their children.  (Psalm 90: 13 & 16) Today’s lessons have got me thinking about completeness and incompleteness, success and failure.  I’m not using the word “versus” in these pairings, success versus failure or completeness versus incompleteness.  I am intentionally using “and”.   That’s because, although these are two sets of antonyms or opposites, they are closely linked.  Often they can be hard to tell apart. Something only partly done can with time become satisfying and sufficient.  I think of Gaudi’s great church, Sagrada Familia in Barcelona.  Building started 141 years ago.  Current plans optimistically call for completion in another decade or two or three.  But when I visited and climbed all over that amazing structure, it was more t...

Twenty-First Sunday after Pentecost 2023 Matthew 22:15-22 Rev. Neli Miranda   For the last weeks, we have been following Jesus’ actions in Jerusalem where he has entered with great authority and has been received as a prophet by the people. However, his prophetic actions have aroused opposition and persecution from the political and religious elite in Jerusalem. While Jesus teaches and heals people in the temple, the religious leaders confront him, and in response, Jesus has addressed them with a series of parables that denounce their corruption and hypocrisy.             Today, we read that Jesus’ adversaries continue seeking the opportunity to bring him down. Matthew tells us the Pharisees and the Herodians have come together in a common cause to entrap Jesus, expecting him to provoke the Roman authorities or to lose his popularity among the people. This is the first of three attempts from various allies to entrap h...

  Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost 2023 Mattew 22,1-14 Rev. Neli Miranda   Today, Jesus continues in Jerusalem confronting the Jewish authorities publicly denouncing their corrupt practices. However, instead of repenting, they resist God and reject Jesus. They have tried to arrest Jesus when he concluded addressing them about the parable of the wicked tenants, but “ they feared the crowds, because they regarded him as a prophet. ” (21,46). Again, with God’s authority and the people’s recognition, Jesus continues with his denunciation and tells the people a third parable, known as “The parable of the wedding banquet”. Jesus begins this parable by saying , “ The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son…” (22, 2).   Here, Jesus changes his usual introduction to his parables from “ The kingdom of heaven is like…” to “ The kingdom of heaven may be compared to …”    In the text, the king sends his slaves twice to call...