Year A, Ordinary 5, 2020 – Beach Reading

February 5, 2020 / Molly Douthett / Epiphany, Ordinary Time

Hi everyone! Welcome to More Than Hearing – at the beach! We’re at the beach for an annual retreat sponsored by our presbytery. You will notice the difference in two ways; we do not have as much material for illustrations and special effects, and the sound quality is going to be different than usual. My computer was having serious disagreements with the recording equipment, too. It will sound a little “off.” However, we did find some ways to illustrate and demonstrate a few things for these passages.

When we looked at this passage three years ago, we suggested finding a shofar for the Isaiah passage and using inert toys. For Corinthians, try integral calculus or C++ coding! And for Matthew, we found some laws still on the books in various states and think Martha Stewart is a good judge of what is simply elegant. Go take a look!


Matthew 5:13-20 [01:58]

We start out with BODY smart and think about what it means to fill out clothing. Offer a child a chance to demonstrate how growing up into our discipleship will help us fill out the commands of Jesus. We have a link to a children’s song that most of us know for MUSIC smart. In NATURE smart, we found an article about why salt is used for cooking. And in SELF smart, pay attention to those things that add salt to your life.


1 Corinthians 2:1-12 [11:33]

Paul uses a rhetorical device in the first section of this passage. David wasn’t certain if the illustration below would be better used in WORD smart or in MATH smart. He decided to put it in MATH for the logic of it. In SELF smart, we have some questions to help us understand what Paul meant by the human spirit within.

  • MATH smart – [13:19]
    • Take a look at this passage from the book, The Rhetoric of Western Thought: From the Mediteranean World to the Global Setting, by James L. Golden
  • SELF smart – [16:28]

Isaiah 58:1-9a [18:12]

We start, once again, with MATH smart and an illustration and demonstration of geometry, engineering principles, and physics. Check it out! For BODY smart, think about fasting and how it changes your body and your mind. We have an illustration for MUSIC smart using middle school orchestra trumpet sections. And finally, we end, once again, with SELF smart and some questions about how we may have wildly underestimated expectations in the past.

  • MATH smart – [20:08]
  • BODY smart – [21:30]
  • MUSIC smart – [23:23]
  • SELF smart – [24:34]

Photo by Nathan Cowley from Pexels. Used by permission.


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