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Year A Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost

A landowner leased his land to tenants. The harvest time came. He sent servants to collect his produce. The tenants refused to pay their tithes. He sent his son. The tenants killed him. What will the owner do to those tenants? The literal parable would say with the religious leaders that he will put them to death and lease the vineyard to tenants who will give him the produce at the harvest time. The grace translation would compare and contrast the differences between a stone that is rejected and one that is the cornerstone.  Read more


Year A Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost Bottom Line Meditations

OLD TESTAMENT: Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20 Literal Religion: Worshipping physical idols is spiritual. Read this scripture literally for its religious meaning. “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me.” Spiritual Grace: Worshipping spiritual idols is physical. Now quietly move into God's Presence and read this scripture again. “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me.” Did you feel the Grace?  Read more


Year A Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost Bottom Line Meditations

OLD TESTAMENT: Exodus 17:1-7 Literal Religion: Sees the historical past. Read this scripture literally for its religious meaning. “Strike the rock, and water will come out of it, so that the people may drink.” Spiritual Grace: Sees both the historical past and the spiritual present. (I Corinthians 10:4 they drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ.) Now quietly move into God's Presence and read this scripture again. “Strike the rock, and water will come out of it, so that the people may drink.” Did you feel the Grace?  Read more


Year A Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Read this scripture gracefully. It starts out, “the Kingdom of Heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning.” It is about the landowner, not the workers. It is about God and His Grace. Physically it may not seem to be fair. Spiritually grace is not “fair”. This is the way salvation is. The same wage is given unconditionally and inclusively to all.  Read more


Year A Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost Bottom Line Meditations

OLD TESTAMENT: Exodus 16:2-15 Literal Religion: Understands “manna” as “physical”. Read this scripture literally for its religious meaning. “When the Israelites saw it, they said to one another, ‘What is it?’ for they did not know what it was.” Spiritual Grace: Understands that Jesus told them what it is: His Spirit. Now quietly move into God's Presence and read this scripture again. “When the Israelites saw it, they said to one another, ‘What is it?’ for they did not know what it was.” Did you feel the Grace?  Read more


Year A Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost Bottom Line Meditations

OLD TESTAMENT: Exodus 14:19-31 Literal Religion: Belief is based on what God has done in the world. Read this scripture literally for its religious meaning. “Israel saw the great work that the LORD did so the people feared the LORD and believed in the LORD.” Spiritual Grace: Belief is based on who God is within us. Now quietly move into God's Presence and read this scripture again. “Israel saw the great work that the LORD did so the people feared the LORD and believed in the LORD.” Did you feel the Grace?  Read more


Year A Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost Bottom Line Meditations

OLD TESTAMENT: Exodus 12:1-14 Literal Religion: Sees putting the blood of the lamb on the door posts and the lentil as historical. Read this scripture literally for the religious meaning. “They shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it.” Spiritual Grace: Sees putting the blood of the lamb on the door posts and the lentil spiritually as a sign of the blood of Christ on the cross. Now quietly move into God's Presence and read it again: “They shall take some of the blood and put it houses in which they eat it.” Did you feel the Grace?  Read more


Year A Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost Bottom Line Meditations

OLD TESTAMENT: 1 Kings 3:5-12 Literal Religion: Discerning Wisdom is rational. Read this scripture literally for its religious meaning. “I now do according to your word. Indeed I give you a wise and discerning mind; no one like you has been before you and no one like you shall arise after you.” Spiritual Grace: Discerning Wisdom is spiritual. Now quietly move into God's Presence and read this scripture again. “I now do according to your word. Indeed I give you a wise and discerning mind; no one like you has been before you and no one like you shall arise after you.” Did you feel the Grace?  Read more


Year A Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost Bottom Line Meditations

OLD TESTAMENT: Exodus 1:8 - 2:10 Literal Religion: Sees the event of the miracle. Read this scripture literally for its religious meaning. “So the girl went and called the child's mother.” Spiritual Grace: Sees the power behind the miracle. Now quietly move into God's Presence and read this scripture again. “So the girl went and called the child's mother.” Did you feel the Grace?  Read more


Year A Tenth Sunday after Pentecost Bottom Line Meditations

OLD TESTAMENT: Genesis 45:1-15 Literal Religion: Forgiveness is to others. Read this scripture literally for its religious meaning. “And he kissed all his brothers and wept upon them.’” Spiritual Grace: Forgiveness is for yourself. Now quietly move into God's Presence and read this scripture again. “And he kissed all his brothers and spiritually wept upon them.’” Did you feel the Grace?  Read more


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