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Hebrews 10:5-10
Advent 4C
This Sunday’s Epistolary Lesson offers preachers one more opportunity to publicly reflect on how God comes to us in the here and now. Hebrews’ author, after all, professes in verse 10 that “we have been made holy [hagiasmenoi*] through the sacrifice [prosphoras] of the body of Jesus Christ once for all [ephapax].” On this last…
Luke 1:39-45 (46-55)
Advent 4C
We don’t hear Mary and the angel’s conversation this year but we do witness its aftereffects. Seized with anticipation of a fellow miracle-receiver, Mary hastens to the countryside to find her elder cousin Elizabeth. The thing is, we’re told that Mary was given the scoop about Elizabeth’s pregnancy from the angel Gabriel, but not vice…
New Years Day B: Matthew 25:31-46
Since on this New Years Day the holiday season is now just winding down, it is likely that at least a few of us watched some or all of the classic holiday movie It’s a Wonderful Life recently. In the story, a man named George Bailey despairs that his life is so worthless that it…
Philippians 4:4-7
Advent 3C
We’ve already noted how the Year C RCL Epistolary lessons devote relatively scant attention to the first and second comings of Christ. But at least on the first two Sundays in Advent they mention Christ’s return by referring to “the day of the Lord” (1 Thessalonians 3:13; Philippians 1:6, 10) This Sunday’s Lesson doesn’t even…
Luke 3:7-18
Advent 3C
Comments, Questions, and Observations Throughout this passage, there is a contrast of powers for transformation. That contrast is most thoroughly set forth in the two baptisms John talks about—his and the one of the Messiah. One is like John himself, human; the other is filled with the power of God. One has power that is…
Philippians 1:3-11
Advent 2C
As was the case last week and is the case throughout Advent, this week’s Revised Common Lectionary Epistolary Lesson seems to pay only minimal attention to that to which many of Jesus’ friends pay so much attention during December. Philippians 1 devotes little attention to Christ’s first and second comings. I previously suggested that this…
Luke 1:68-79
Advent 2C
We could call it Psalm 151. Because that is what Zechariah’s song sounds like. Not only does it sound like some of the actual 150 psalms in the Hebrew Psalter, it sounds very much like an Old Testament passage even though it is of course in the New Testament (which may be why the Year…
Luke 3:1-6
Advent 2C
Comments, Questions, and Observations With his list of the powerful, Luke establishes us well under the thumb of Roman rule. From Caesar and his representatives in Palestine and the surrounding regions, to the Roman supported high priests, there can be no doubt who is in charge in Jerusalem. The infamous Roman road system was not…
1 Thessalonians 3:9-13
Advent 1C
In Advent God’s dearly beloved people think about the ways in which God has graciously come, is coming and will come to us. However, during the month of December Jesus’ friends especially expend a lot of energy thinking about his first coming. The Church, at its best, also tries to direct at least some of…
Luke 21:25-36
Advent 1C
We open the Advent season by naming hardship and hope as our bedfellows. Jesus warns us that things will look and feel worse and worse—that chaos will threaten to overwhelm and even shake the foundations of heaven. Some of us will numb ourselves to the hardship, like how alcohol numbs our senses and thoughts so…
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