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Acts 2:42-47
Easter 4A
Every once in a while when surveying the sometimes messy, untidy nature of church life, someone will say to me “If only the church today could be more like the Early Church in Acts.” My typical, semi-cheeky retort to this is usually, “Have you read The Book of Acts? We already are like the church…
Acts 2:14a, 22-32
Easter 3A
“And for all who are far off . . .” I guess that’s us. I guess that’s everybody. It was even, at least for a time, Peter and company. After all, the crucifixion accounts make it clear that the disciples watched Jesus die from a distance. It’s the same word as in Acts 2: makran,…
Acts 2:14a, 22-32
Easter 2A
Garry Wills once wrote a fine book titled, Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words That Remade America. Wills claims that in the Gettysburg Address, Abraham Lincoln—in the span of a scant 272 words that took him all of three minutes to deliver—forever altered our understanding of the Declaration of Independence. Lincoln was not even the main…
Acts 10:34-43
Easter Day A
“He was not seen by all the people.” I’ll say. This is what Peter tells Cornelius in Acts 10 as he sums up the story arc of Jesus’ life, including the world-altering fact of his having been raised from the dead. Jesus was raised again! He arose!! But . . . by way of a…
Acts 10:34-43
Epiphany 1A
Nearly all people, including Christians, have not just favorite people, but also favorite kinds of people. That helps shrink the leap for at least some Christians to the assumption that God too doesn’t just have favorite people, but also favorite kinds of people. This Sunday’s Epistolary Lesson challenges that assumption. As a result, it may…
Acts 2:1-21
Pentecost C
COVID-19. Has anything in our experience ever made us think as much about the act of respiration, of breathing, than the global pandemic we have been in for over two years now? Way back in 2006 I visited Japan. At that time there was no particular flu bug worrying anyone. Yet I was struck to…
Acts 16:16-34
Easter 7C
It was certainly an interesting day! In this story we get a little occult, an exorcism, some political intrigue, an earthquake, and in the end the exuberant joy of the gospel! Your average Lord’s day it was not. As Luke narrates it for us in Acts 16, Paul and Silas’ experiences in the city of…
Acts 16:9-15
Easter 6C
How did the Holy Spirit prevent Paul and company from entering into the regions of Asia, as Acts 16 narrates this for us? Yes, Luke (our narrator) makes clear that the Spirit “prevented” them from going in the direction they were minded to go, but I wonder just how that all worked out. Should we…
Acts 11:1-18
Easter 5C
Luke is hands-down one of the best writers ever used by the Holy Spirit to compose a portion of Scripture. His narratives in the first two chapters of his Gospel alone prove as much. Other examples of narrative wizardry abound in Luke and Acts. So it is a bit odd in Acts 11 to encounter…
Acts 9:36-43
Easter 4C
Call her “Tabitha” or call her “Dorcas” the meaning in both Aramaic and Greek was the same: “Gazelle.” Was it her given name or a nickname that matched her lifestyle? We don’t know but by all appearances the woman best known as Dorcas was gazelle-like indeed. She was lightning fast at helping the poor and…
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