Genesis 9:8-17; Mark 1:9-15 Lent 1B Increasingly, Christians have sought ways to include animals in the liturgical life of the church. Our Catholic and Anglican friends customarily observe a “blessing of the animals” in their worship life every October on the Feast Day of St. Francis. Many Presbyterian congregations have begun to include animal blessings among their annual rituals in order to honor relationships with beloved pets whose lives are closely linked with our own. This past October, even in the midst of pandemic lockdown, some of my friends found a way to bless their dear pets online. For those who missed this in October, the first Sunday of Lent provides another occasion for reflection on human relationships with other creatures, for two of the texts featured in the lectionary explicitly mention them. The first lesson for this Sunday (Genesis 9:8-17) narrates God’s eternal covenant promise to all living things. The Genesis narrative began with divine blessing … [Read more...]

Mark 9:2-9 In the Presbyterian liturgical year, Transfiguration Sunday marks the last Sunday before Ash Wednesday. However, it is well worth noting that our Roman Catholic friends celebrate the Feast of the Transfiguration on August 6, which results in a haunting juxtaposition for August 6 also happens to be Hiroshima Remembrance Day — a day commemorating a very different kind of “transfiguration.” Seventy-five years ago, on that fateful day, the Enola Gay, a Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber, took off from a military base on Tinian Island and dropped the first atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. I was stunned to learn of this connection, and so the last time I found myself preaching on Transfiguration Sunday, I placed Mark’s story of Jesus’ transfiguration side by side with remembrance of Hiroshima, inviting reflection on the nonviolence of Jesus and the bombing of Hiroshima. Reactions to the sermon surprised me. It seems that decades after our nation’s fateful … [Read more...]