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2 Corinthians 12:2-10
Proper 9B
As we have been noting, throughout 2 Corinthians Paul seems a bit all over the map. The criticisms made behind his back and the charges of the “super apostles” seem to have driven Paul to a kind of emotional brink. By his own admission in one form or another, he has been nearly beside himself…
2 Corinthians 8:7-15
Proper 8B
Most ministers get uncomfortable where the subject of money is concerned. So we make jokes about it, like the time I was at a church where the minister said “Do you believe in the hereafter?” People applauded that they did so believe. “Good,” the minister went on “because we’re here after a good offering!” Ha…
2 Corinthians 6:1-13
Proper 7B
Ouch! We have been noticing recently that 2 Corinthians can be a hard letter to read. There is so much personal, professional, and pastoral pain in the background for Paul. But at the end of this Lectionary selection Paul brings the hammer down pretty hard: he is being perfectly loving toward the Corinthians—as he always…
2 Corinthians 5:6-10, (11-13), 14-17
Proper 6B
When we were younger (so much younger than today . . .), we perhaps naively thought that so long as we were sincere and well-intentioned then, even if we made mistakes (as we all do), we could avoid creating any enemies, avoid having anyone who so disliked us as to avoid us in public even…
2 Corinthians 4:13-5:1
Proper 5B
There’s no two ways about it: Paul’s second letter to the folks in Corinth can be tough to read. When Paul is not ranting and raving against his “super apostle” foes who have been badmouthing him up one side of the street and down the other, Paul also makes it clear that he himself has…
2 Corinthians 4:5-12
Proper 4B
In her memoir The Year of Magical Thinking, Joan Didion recounts what she thought about during the year following her husband’s sudden death. Near the end of December 2003, Didion and her husband were sitting down for dinner, having just come back from visiting their gravely ill daughter in the hospital. Her husband John was…
2 Corinthians 4:3-6
Epiphany 6B
It is Transfiguration Sunday and so naturally the Lectionary gravitates toward passages that talk about light and shining and illumination. On that score, these verses carved out of 2 Corinthians 4 fit the bill. But it’s an open question whether this passage is finally all about that light imagery—it may be more about the nature…
2 Corinthians 13:11-13
Trinity Sunday A
“I hope this letter finds you strong in the faith. I also hope that circumstances will soon make it possible for me to meet each of you . . . Yours for the cause of Peace and Brotherhood, Martin Luther King, Jr.” Those are among the closing words of the landmark “Letter from a Birmingham…
2 Corinthians 5:16-21
Lent 4C
When we were younger, we perhaps naively thought that so long as we were sincere and well-intentioned then, even if we made mistakes (as we all do) we could avoid creating any enemies, avoid having anyone who so disliked us as to avoid us in public even as they derided us in private. But then…
2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2
Last Epiphany C
Setting aside Donald Trump’s recent exigetically disastrous and self-serving use of a verse in this week’s Epistle lection, most of us who preach would admit that this is not an easy text to get right. Paul’s second letter to Corinth contains wonderful pockets of now well-known words and images. But weaving in and around those…
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