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Genesis 37:1-4, 12-28: Meanwhile – Proper 14A
Life would have been better without the dreams. Things would have gone more smoothly, life would have been easier for all concerned without the dreams. Dreams of a better, brighter, or even just a different future are always a two-edged sword. We love to celebrate those who lived in such a way as to realize…
Genesis 12:1-4
Lent 1A
Illustration In chapter 12 of the book, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years, Donald Miller tells the story of his friend Jason. Jason and his wife had a 13-year-old daughter. And their 13-year-old daughter had pot stashed in her closet. She had a boyfriend too. And she had a father who was terrified of…
Genesis 2:15-17, 3:1-7
Lent 1A
Illustration One of the most compelling recent apologetics for sin comes, ironically, from Francis Spufford’s book, Unapologetic: Why, Despite Everything, Christianity Can Still Make Surprising Emotional Sense. Emerging from a long line of once-skeptical British intellectuals returning to Christian faith and finding that it does, in fact, “make surprising emotional sense.” In his second chapter,…
Genesis 9:8-17: Grief and Grace – Lent 1B
As “Bible Stories” go, the story about Noah’s Ark has few peers. Children love this story. Kids enjoy singing all those “fun” songs about the arky-arky. They have a good time playing with the various toys and puzzles that tie in with Noah’s ark. My in-laws, for instance, once had a lovely ark made out…
Genesis 15:1-6
Proper 14C
Illustration I suppose it’s fair to say that Hebrew Scripture has been in the cultural zeitgeist long enough that its contents are public domain. I mean, I don’t even know who would be qualified to bring a lawsuit on behalf of … Moses? At the same time, I do think you could make a plausible…
Genesis 18:20-32
Proper 12C
Lectionary Connection: This week’s Hebrew Scripture text pairs well as an example of Jesus’ teaching about prayer in Luke 11. Abraham’s brash intervention on behalf of Lot and, by extension, to Sodom is the personification of Jesus’ teaching: “Ask and you will receive. Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened…
Genesis 18:1-10
Proper 11C
Divine Revelation Genesis 18:1-10 is a duplicate telling of the same information—a technique quite familiar to the reader of Genesis. Note, for example, the double telling of creation. Biblical criticism accounts for this through the naming of various narrative voices in Hebrew Scripture. Leaving that intensive evaluative technique aside for the moment, what we read…
Acts 2:1-21/Genesis 11:1-9
Pentecost
The people of the earth have just been through it. The whole of their lives drowned in a flood. Because of their wickedness. And because God is a Holy God, God is not afraid to punish wickedness. But now that God has set the people on dry ground, they are still a little shook. So…
Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18
Lent 2C
A Tribal Leader without a Tribe This text invites us to enter into Abram’s story between promise and fulfillment. Genesis 12 lays out God’s plan: to take Abram and make a great nation and a great name by which all people will be blessed. However, a lot of life has been lived between chapter 12…
Genesis 45:3-11, 15
Epiphany 7C
It matters how you tell the story. After chapters and chapters of some narrator telling us Joseph’s story, with very few places where Joseph, himself, gives meaning to the unfolding events. After the most recent three chapters where we experience the brothers living out their story until, two weeks ago, Judah finally spilled the whole…
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