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John 1:6-8, 19-28
Advent 3B
Comments, Observations, and Questions Among you stands one you do not know.” Those were John the Baptist’s words as recorded in John 1:26. Of course, at that time it was literally true that a quiet carpenter’s son from the backwaters of the Roman Empire was rubbing shoulders with lots of people—including the crowds that jostled…
1 Thessalonians 5:16-24
Advent 3B
Comments, Observations, and Questions After the heavy duty apocalyptic warnings and the stern commands of II Peter 3:8-15a, our reading for this third Sunday of Advent feels a bit lightweight, like a snow flurry of commands that don’t really fit the Advent season, except that our reading ends with Paul’s final reference in this letter…
Mark 1:1-8
Advent 2B
Comments and Observations Imagine yourself a Kindergarten teacher who gathers a group of wide-eyed five-and six-year-olds onto the square of carpeting in the classroom that is reserved for “Story Time.” You smile into their innocent faces and begin your story. “Once upon a time a little girl named Goldilocks was fast asleep in a lovely…
2 Peter 3:8-15a
Advent 2B
Comments, Observations, and Questions Our text for the second Sunday of Advent is a vivid reminder that Advent is not only about the coming of the “tender and mild” baby Jesus at Christmas, but also about the Coming of God in the terrifying Day of the Lord. Frankly, no one really wants to think about…
Mark 13:24-37
Advent 1B
Comments and Observations: Long about the time most people are switching all of their Christmas lights on to celebrate the holiday in 2014, the Gospel reading for the first Sunday in Advent brings us straight to a text that points forward to a great and coming day when all the lights will go . ….
1 Corinthians 1:3-9
Advent 1B
Comments, Observations, and Questions Sometimes I wonder what the inventor(s) of the Revised Common Lectionary were thinking when they chose the texts for the three year cycle. I mean, take the reading for today, the first Sunday of Advent. It is the very same text the RCL used for the second Sunday of Epiphany in…
Matthew 6:24-34
Epiphany 8A
Comments and Observations Unexpected twists arrest our attention. How often haven’t we seen a movie advertised as worth seeing because, according to the promotional ad, “You won’t believe how it ends!” or “The conclusion will leave you breathless!” Some years ago the popular movie The Sixth Sense shocked viewers around the world with an ending…
Luke 5:1-11
Epiphany 5C
Comments and Observations Anybody can have a bad day fishing. But you don’t expect professional fisherman to come up empty, yet the men who went on to become the first disciples seemed often to have this problem. If you wanted to find somebody to become a “fisher of people,” you might want at the very…
Matthew 2:1-12
Epiphany C
Strange, isn’t it? For ever-so-long now the Church has often been seen by those outside of the Church—and not infrequently by even a good many folks inside the Church—as being a kind of exclusive club. Too often it all comes down to who’s in, who’s out. In history popes and other religious leaders have used…
Ephesians 3:1-12
Epiphany C
Comments, Observations, and Questions to Consider As many churches will do this Epiphany Sunday, my last church often celebrated the Epiphany of our Lord with a careful study of the story of the Magi in Matthew 2. Guided by that singular star in the western sky, those 3 wise men from the East represented the…
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