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Where your treasure is your heart will be also. An old school way of addressing this is from the Bishop of Rochester a long time ago at a stewardship conference.

Is there a connection between the transfiguration and the baptism of Jesus? It’s not the transfiguration and the baptism itself but what is to happen afterwards.

Do to others as you would have them do to you. A frail old man went to live with his son, daughter-in-law, and four year-old grandson. The old man’s hands trembled, his eyesight was
blurred, and his step faltered.

The one word which comes to mind when I think of this time in history is: patience. That we have to wait some more for things to change and get better. But the word which weaves its way through the readings today is trust.

This Gospel passage is at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry with the disciples fishing and Jesus saying to them that he will make them fish for people. It is bad enough that we are compared to sheep in other passages and this one that we would fish for others or be like fish ourselves. But what does Jesus mean by this?

A prophet not without honour except in his own hometown. Richard Rohr has said that the definition of an expert is someone who has come from at least 300 miles away.

Jesus today reads from the prophet Isaiah, and that he is the one that the Spirit of the Lord is upon, and he is anointed to bring good news to the poor, release of the captives, sight to the blind and to free the oppressed.

Signs….signs….everywhere are signs….road signs, stop signs, yield signs, caution signs, business signs, storefront sandwich board signs, and, my favourite ones, church signs. Many are funny, some quirky, but they all convey a message.

There are two parts to the Gospel today and thus two parts to the sermon. In the first part John the Baptist says: “I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”