exodus 17:1-7

Proper 21 (26) Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost (Year A, 2022-2023)

Scripture Readings: Exodus 17:1-7, Psalm 78:1-4, 12-16, Philippians 2:1-13, Matthew 21:23-32

A calamity is defined as an event that causes a great and often sudden damage or distress.  A calamity is a disaster, a calamity is a tragedy, a calamity is a bad thing.   

There are many calamities reported in the news.  Resent train derailments in Ohio, Florida, West Virginia, Michigan, Oklahoma, Nebraska, and Alabama is a calamity. 

The kidnapping and murder of our  brothers and sisters in Mexico is a calamity.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine is a calamity.  

The civil war in Ethiopia where since 2018 Fighting there has killed hundreds of thousands of people and displaced millions more in Africa’s second-most-populous country, is a calamity.  

But can a calamity be a calamity if it’s never reported?

Dr. Marvin Dunn is an emeritus professor at Florida International University.  He is the author of the book A History of Florida Through Black Eyes.    In explaining the purpose for the book, he writes: (quote) “ Blacks were left out or minimized in most accounts of Florida history because to have included our real story would have meant telling the embarrassing, horrific, bloody truth about the underbelly of Florida and the brutal bigots who controlled the state for so long. It would also have meant telling the stories of black heroes and heroines who resisted The Beast of oppression with words and sometimes with arms.” (end quote) 

In other words, to tell the story of Florida the racial calamities must be told as well. 

From Genesis to Revelations, the Bible tells the calamities that befall people within the pages of it’s holy text.  These calamities faced by Adam, Eve, David, Ruth, and Bathsheba are the same ones we face today

Greed, Lying, Stealing, Murder, Adultery along with unfaithfulness to God and His teachings.   

However, it is God’s telling of these calamities available to be read, to be taught, and to be shared by all regardless of age or station of life that have sparked the faith of many.  For it in knowing about our calamities and not passing laws in the name of “anti-wokeness” to keep us from knowing the unpleasantness of our history brings to us true opportunities for growth along with the avoidance of future calamities.    

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Third Sunday in Lent (Year A, 2022-2023)

Scripture Readings: Exodus 17:1-7, Psalm 95, Romans 5:1-11, John 4:5-42

Third Sunday in Lent (Year A, 2019-2020) - Exodus 17:1-7, Psalm 95, Romans 5:1-11, John 4:5-42

Then Moses made Israel set out from the Red Sea, and they went into the wilderness of Shur. They went three days in the wilderness and found no water. 23 When they came to Marah, they could not drink the water of Marah because it was bitter; therefore it was named Marah. 24 And the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?” 25 And he cried to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a log, and he threw it into the water, and the water became sweet.

There the Lord made for them a statute and a rule, and there he tested them, 26 saying, “If you will diligently listen to the voice of the Lord your God, and do that which is right in his eyes, and give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, your healer.”

27 Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees, and they encamped there by the water.

All the congregation of the people of Israel moved on from the wilderness of Sin by stages, according to the commandment of the Lord, and camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. 2 Therefore the people quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.” And Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord?” 3 But the people thirsted there for water, and the people grumbled against Moses and said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?” 4 So Moses cried to the Lord, “What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me.” 5 And the Lord said to Moses, “Pass on before the people, taking with you some of the elders of Israel, and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. 6 Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb, and you shall strike the rock, and water shall come out of it, and the people will drink.” And Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel. 7 And he called the name of the place Massah and Meribah, because of the quarreling of the people of Israel, and because they tested the Lord by saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”

Proper 21 - Sunday after Pentecost (Year A)
Exodus 17:1-7, Psalm 78:1-4, 12-16, Philippians 2:1-13, Matthew 21:23-32

3rd Sunday in Lent (Year A), Exodus 17:1-7, Psalm 95, Romans 5:1-11, John 4:5-42