Letters home

 Yesterday morning, I spent an hour or two reading the letters of a soldier written home to his mother. There were letters from his work before he enlisted, when he was a Forest Ranger in the White Mountains of Arizona. There were letters from Fort Bliss as he was processed in and eventually there were letters from Fort Bliss when he was processed out. There were letters from when he was training and letters when he was waiting to go overseas. There were letters about what he experienced behind the lines while he was overseas. (Discreetly, without place names.) There were letters when it was time to come home and then there was a letter asking, why serve?

Now there was time to ask that question; now there was time to think about it.

What was it all about? Why did we go? Was it just to prop up one economic interest against another? Was it to fight for freedom?

These questions asked by an American soldier in 1919 are still questions we need to ask today. These are questions we need to ask ourselves as we welcome home people who have served overseas. Why serve? Why did they go? Why did we expect them to? How shall we welcome them home? How shall we explain to them what it was all about?

online resources for worship and study

 Here are some online resources for worship and study that I use (and you can too):

The Lectionary Page

https://www.lectionarypage.net/

oremus Bible Browser

https://bible.oremus.org/

Bible Gateway

https://www.biblegateway.com/

Common English Bible

https://www.commonenglishbible.com/

Venite 

https://www.venite.app/home

Church of England Daily Prayer 

https://www.churchofengland.org/prayer-and-worship/join-us-service-daily-prayer

Mission of St Clare

https://www.missionstclare.com/english/index.html

The Lectionary Page, Venite, oremus Bible Browser, Bible Gateway, and Common English Bible are useful in looking up lectionary readings or Scripture passages.

Members of the ELCA may also use https://members.sundaysandseasons.com/Bible 

Church of England Daily Prayer, Mission of St Clare, and Venite may be useful in daily prayer.

resources for preachers and listeners:

Feasting on the Word Additional Essays and Index

https://www.wjkbooks.com/Feasting-on-the-Word-Additional-Essays-and-Index/

Additional Essays

The Revised Common Lectionary offers two tracks of Old Testament texts for the Season after Pentecost or Ordinary Time: [1] a semicontinuous track, which moves through stories and characters in the Old Testament, and [2] a complementary track, which ties the Old Testament texts to the theme of the Gospel texts for that day. Some denominational traditions favor one over the other, and not all of the lections are included in the print volumes. Additional essays were developed following the same format as the print volumes to include all lections included in the Revised Common Lectionary for the season after Pentecost.