Sermon preached by Fr. Tom
at St. Thomas, Plymouth
August 31, 2014
Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost
Exodus 3:1-15
Psalm 105:1-6, 23-26, 45c
Romans 12:9-21
Matthew 16:21-28
“ May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be an
acceptable offering in your sight, Oh Lord, my strength and my redeemer.”
King Darius of Persia in the 5th century had a problem. He ruled a very
large kingdom. Communication was a very big problem. From one side of
his kingdom to the other was about 1700 miles. Sending a messenger took
about 90 days or so given all the cow paths that passed for roads. Travel was
not easy in those days and 20 miles a day looked like a pretty good rate of
travel.