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John 10:11-18
Easter 4B
Comments and Observations: Today we don’t have shepherds in the wider society. Today we have managers. But shepherds and managers are not the same. Whenever Jesus uses the pastoral image of a shepherd for himself, the point is nearly always the same: as the good shepherd of his sheep, he will risk his life and…
Acts 4:5-12
Easter 4B
Comments and Observations If only the Common Lectionary had gone on just one more verse! Stopping shy of verse 13 deprives us from seeing one of the great passages of the Bible. Because it is there that the ruling authorities—who are seeking to hush up the apostles—find themselves powerfully impressed that the people doing all…
1 John 3:16-24
Easter 4B
Comments and Observations Rarely is taking a test a joyful experience, but the author of I John has woven four tests into his letter/sermon designed to bring his readers joy. “We write this to make our (yours and mine?) joy complete.” (I John 1:4) The way to complete joy, he says, is to be sure…
Luke 24:36-48
Easter 3B
Comments and Observations The end of Luke’s Gospel sums it all up pretty well. In swift strokes of Luke’s quill, we move from Easter Sunday evening directly to the Ascension of Jesus (just beyond the bounds of this lection). We learn from Luke’s other New Testament contribution, Acts, that Jesus lingered in physical form for…
Acts 3:12-19
Easter 3B
Similar to what Jesus taught him and the other disciples at the end of Luke 24 (the Gospel lection for this same week in the Year B Lectionary), Peter in Acts 3 suggests that the healing of the crippled beggar—who was even then still hanging on Peter’s pant leg—is less a startling, previously unheard-of event…
1 John 3:1-7
Easter 3B
Comments and Observations As I meditated on these words, two pictures from my last church came to mind. I saw 50 fresh faced, neatly dressed girls, ranging in age from 8 to 13, sitting behind me in the choir loft as I preached from this text. This was on a Sunday that honored those girls. …
John 20:19-31
Easter 2B
Comments and Observations: Doubting Thomas. Don’t you hate it when you make one mistake and it defines you from then on out?! One little mistake and Thomas becomes a morality lesson, a byword, a counter-example of anything we’d ever want to be. In truth, however, there is more than a little of Thomas in all…
Acts 4:32-35
Easter 2B
Comments and Observations Acts 4 is enough to break your heart. Was it really true at the earliest stage of the Christian community that the believers were completely one in heart and mind? Did they really share absolutely everything even as they fell adoringly and reverently at the feet of the apostles, hanging on their…
1 John 1:1-2:2
Easter 2B
Comments and Observations All of the readings from the epistles for the season after Easter are from I John. That’s an interesting choice, since the theme of I John is certainty, assurance of salvation. “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know…
Mark 16:1-8
Easter 1B
Suppose a grandfather calls his granddaughter over and says to her, “Sweetie, out on the back porch I have a special surprise for you: a new bike!” Upon hearing this news the little girl will probably quickly run out to see the bike. If so, you might describe her as sprinting away from her grandfather,…
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