The season of Advent begins today with the first Sunday of Advent, and marks a new year in the church calendar, that we will see in our gospel readings now focused on Mark, the purple on the altar, and with our Advent wreath and weekly prayers.

Jesus never viewed himself as a king but rather something we are more familiar with, a shepherd, a teacher, a friend. He lived his life as the companion and champion to the poor, the downtrodden, to those who were marginalized and considered unworthy by others, and even invisible to some. The “ least of these” are all members of Jesus’ family. Jesus saw them for all their messiness and loved everyone of them.

I grew up in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, DC. In those days, we still had a small shopping center a few blocks from our house that had a dry cleaner, a barber shop, an independent grocery store, a bakery, and a hardware store. The hardware store had a special place in the hearts of boys my age. We were able to ride our bicycles to the store, park them on the sidewalk, and go inside to marvel at the displays of tools, supplies, ladders, and, above all, the pocket knives that were displayed in their own wooden display box on the top of the counter.

The lighted road work sign would typically hold a familiar message:

“Caution: One-lane road ahead.”

“Alert: Accident at exit 80.”

“Caution: Work zone ahead.”

But this sign was startling in its message:

“Hold your loved ones tight and help others.”

Our Gospel lesson today tells of a conversation that took place in the final week of Jesus’ earthly life. He has already made his entrance into Jerusalem to the waving of palms and shouts of hosanna.

And the tension is high in the city, it is a tinderbox waiting to explode, reminding us sharply today of how painful and grief-soaked and complex the history of the Holy Land has been.

Our readings today are well known and yet, we might miss the numerous references to creation. While our minds hear these familiar stories we might not even notice how God’s creation is woven into so much of our scriptures. We might actually, well, miss the trees for the forest.

This week our reading from Exodus reaches the point when Moses brings the Ten Commandments to the people. The Israelites have been wandering in the wilderness, free but so unclear on what that means, uncertain, afraid and often taking out their pain on Moses, doubting his leadership, his wisdom, his connection to God.

The kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God, God’s vision, God’s way for life on this earth. Will it look anything like the way we humans run things?

Well, we get another parable today to spin our heads and perhaps help us to let go of our ways, and glimpse God’s kingdom.

Our gospel today finds Peter once more asking a question, and hoping, like all of us humans, that he already knows the right answer! He asks Jesus how often you need to forgive a member of the church who sins against you, and before Jesus can answer, supplies a seemingly good answer:

“As many as seven times?”

That passage from Exodus is a page turner, isn’t it? With the threat of the angel of death at the door, those Israelites needed to eat dinner fast! Loins girded, sandals on their feet, staffs in their hands. Ready to go!

Yesterday morning I led a service at the Labyrinth celebrating the life of Dick Patteson, the brother of Trinity member, Jean Price. One of the first people to arrive at the Labyrinth was an older gentleman who came over to talk to me.

I never got his name, but he told me he had been deaf almost since birth. He went on to say that he had attended many funerals and weddings in his life, and always had to rely on the bulletin at such services because he could not hear a word.

Our reading from Matthew is one of the most difficult, most puzzling and most disturbing passages in the gospels. A Canaanite woman cries out to Jesus for mercy and help, and his responses seem, well, uncaring, even heartless.

Preachers over the centuries have tried to explain away Jesus’s behavior, and have tried to soften what he said.

Yesterday five deacons were ordained at Grace Episcopal Church in Alexandria, including Deborah Falls Lockhart, now the Rev. Deb Lockhart, Deacon!

As you listened to the gospel this morning, and perhaps noticed on the cover of the bulletin that today is the Sunday we remember the Transfiguration of Jesus, you would be forgiven for thinking, wait a minute, haven’t we already done that this year?

Many years ago, when I was serving in school ministry, I taught a summer school enrichment class in Study Skills to rising 6th graders. The students were in the class as they needed help getting ready for the challenges of 6th grade, where more independence would be required, and better time management and organizational skills. We met every day, and after about a week of class, I was explaining some organizational plan that had 3 parts to it.

This is my ninth year of gardening in the Northern Neck, and I have come to believe that weeds grow bigger and stronger and faster here than in Richmond! Goodness, sometimes I think I can hear the weeds snickering at me as I pull some in one area, and they are galloping across another!

Spoiler alert: Today’s sermon will not be about gardening…. It is about hearing or listening.

Sometimes, when I look at the Lectionary, it is difficult for me to see the common thread that draws the readings together. It makes me wonder what the selection committee was trying to get us to think about, or maybe, was it their intent to play a joke on those who have to prepare a sermon. If God can test Abraham, as in last week’s reading, why not have the Consultation on Common Texts do the same for those working on sermons?

As we gather today, on the first day we are expected to reach 90 degrees, and as the humidity increases quickly, and the wild fire haze settles in, the image in our gospel reading of a “cup of cold water” is still tangible and appealing to us, thousands of years after Jesus spoke of that cup.