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Exodus 17:1-7
Lent 3A
Pastor’s Cut It is almost too bad that we are expected to preach this text to our congregations because, really, this is a story for pastors. Pastors following God’s guidance (wishing the pillar of cloud by day and fire by night was still a thing) in order to get God’s people where they are supposed…
Exodus 3:1-15: The Suspense of Faith: Proper 17A
All of life has at least a little suspense to it. Sometimes such suspense is a good and happy thing, the kind of thing a child feels when anticipating opening Christmas presents or awaiting the start of a long-anticipated birthday party. Few phrases can titillate a child as much as the two words, “You’ll see!”…
Genesis 32:22-31: That Face: Proper 13A
And so it has come to this. Jacob, the heel-grasper, the schemer, the wheeler and dealer, the sneak, the crook, the lie, the cheat: he’s coming home. Deception and wheedling stand on either side of the last twenty years, like bookends on Jacob’s life. He fled Canaan having deceived his old father, Isaac, and having…
Exodus 24:12-18
Transfiguration Sunday
Worship Connection Transfiguration Sunday offers a bridge every year from Epiphany, the season of light, to Lent, the season of Ash. What light and ash have in common is fire, which creates both. Although the Transfiguration Gospel text from Matthew doesn’t name fire as an element in the Transfiguration of Christ, many of the images…
Exodus 34:29-35
Transfiguration Sunday C
Commentary: It’s instructive that the season of Epiphany, which begins with a bright star in the East, leading the Magi to worship the Christ-child concludes with Transfiguration Sunday, in which glory and shining, brilliance and light are, again, prominent themes. This imagery would have been at home in the Ancient Near Eastern imagination as, according…
Exodus 20:1-17
Lent 3B
Must Be Important Here we are, less than 6 months since the last time this text came up in the lectionary reading cycle. You can find my previous commentary here [Mary, can you add hyperlink?] At the least what we should consider when a text comes up more than once in a calendar year is…
Exodus 33:12-23
Proper 24A
In military and government work, informal clearance is often withheld with a simple phrase, “that is need to know,” meaning that you don’t. You can complete your assignment or your project without the answer to that particular question. It seems as though, in this text, Moses is not satisfied with the information God has been…
Exodus 32:1-14
Proper 23A
What is taking God so long? There’s a whole sermon to be preached in the opening clause of this text: “When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down the mountain…” Of course, the key theme of the text is idolatry: the making and worshiping of the golden calf by the Israelites. …
Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20
Proper 22A
Textual Comments, Observations and Questions: Some commentators believe that these brief excurses (v. 5-6 and 10-11) signal a later addition to the original text, which could substantiate the lectionary compiler’s choice to excise them from the reading this week. However, getting down to just 10 commands out of all the attitudes, postures, words and actions…
Exodus 17:1-7
Proper 21A
Comments, Observations and Questions: Don’t Forget to Remember There is a recent song, written by Ellie Holcomb, entitled: “Don’t Forget to Remember.” The chorus goes like this: “Don’t forget to remember you’re never alone. No matter if you are up high or down low. And as sure as the sun keeps rising above. Don’t forget…
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