Bad at Math; Good at Parties
Episode description
Jesus’ parables contain an “excess of meaning” which makes preaching three of them on a single morning quite the challenge. What is one to do with the excess upon excess upon excess?? Instead of choosing just one sermon of the hundred variations a preacher might preach, Pastor Megan offers a whole series of vignettes, noticings, wonderings, sneak peeks of the sermons that might have been and might still could be. “I can talk about…” becomes a refrain for noticing the many noteworthy things in the stories of a shepherd with 100 sheep, a woman with 10 coins, and a father with two sons. In each case: rejoice, rejoice, rejoice… [sermon begins at minute 27:00]
Permission to podcast the music in this service obtained from One License with license #A-726929. All rights reserved.
- As We Rise, O God, to Meet You - Text: Delores Dufner, OSB,2013, alt., © 2016; Music: Nicolaus Decius, 1522
- Could it be that God is Singing - Text: Becca J. R. Lachman © 2004; Music: Southern Harmony, 1854,; arr. Alice Parker © 2008
- Longing for Light - Text and Music: Bernadette Farrell © 1993
Additional Resources
- Joanna Harader, “Bad at Math,” poem for Lenten Devotional, 2021.
- Amy-Jill Levine: “‘Prodigal son’ forces reassessment of Bible’s other brother pairs,” 2011 article in The Chautauquan Daily.
- Henri J. M. Nouwen. The Return of the Prodigal Son: A Story of Homecoming. New York NY: Doubleday, 1992.
- Who Counts, by Amy Jill Levine and Sandy Eisenberg Sasso, illustrated by Margaux Meganck
- Photo: a mountainside sheep in England’s Lake District, by Megan Ramer