The 10th Sunday after Pentecost, August 14, 2022; The Rev. Dr. John D. Golenski
Luke 12:56. Do you not know how to interpret the present time?
Believe me when I tell you that clergy in Christian churches using the Revised Common Lectionary dread August. That’s when we have to deal in our preaching with the apocalyptic passages in the Synoptic Gospels. When last we shared a meal, I joked with Pam that she always takes her vacation during this month so she can escape all these “doom and gloom” passages. Seriously, there is a lot of gloom in the portions from the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke that are assigned for August’s Sundays. Suffused with what we could call an apocalyptic vision, they focus on the inevitability of divine judgment and the imminence of the end of time.