Hey everyone! Welcome to the last episode of Ordinary Time, Year C! Next week is Reign of Christ Sunday which simultaneously wraps up the year and welcomes in the next one. This week, we finish the long season begun in June with a psalm of praise, a fiery warning, encouragement to keep doing what is good, and Jesus’ response to a question about future events. We did the same texts three years ago so you can go see what other illustrations and special effects are on the menu from that show. For today, we’ll take a look at the passages and consider how each one addresses our habits and attitudes – which ones will survive intact in the egg basket and which ones will be broken in order for God to make something new out of them?

Smarts for the Week

In the past couple weeks, I’ve been weakening and allowing other intelligences into the house when I open the door for the one I’m supposed to be emphasizing – I can’t help it, they’re so insistent! (And often pretty good!) So this week, while I do my best to pay attention to PEOPLE smart, NATURE and MUSIC creep in and sit in the corner, trying not to laugh. On the other hand, David is bravely sticking with the plan and has some very interesting ways of using MATH smart for the texts. Download the worksheet below to see what didn’t make the cut for the podcast!

PEOPLE smart – [timestamp]Download

MATH smart – [timestamp]Download

Texts for the Week

Malachi 4:1-2a – [timestamp]

In the words of Joey Lawrence, “Whoa.” At least that was my reaction to verse one in this selection. Yet, the image of fire burning evildoers to oblivion – while graphic – is not the end. In the very next verse, new life is promised. Taking a page out of NATURE smart, ask your congregation to consider ways that humans are refined through heat and pressure (difficult jobs, challenging relationships, adolescence, etc.). What new thing came out of that time?

For MATH smart, David looked up some experiments done in Australia and California about combustion. In one study, scientists examined how leaves decomposition impact flammability. In the other one, they measured temperature and time until combustion. The connection to Malachi’s vision is metaphorical – how does one’s ethical composition and spiritual orientation determine flammability?

* PEOPLE smart – [timestamp]* Commentary by Fred Gaiser, Working Preacher* Commentary by