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Ephesians 5:8-14
Lent 4A
“Have nothing to do with [me synkoinoneite*] the fruitless [akarpois] deeds of darkness [skotous],” Paul admonishes Ephesus’ Christians in verses 11-12 of this Sunday’s Epistolary Lesson. “But rather expose [elenchete] them. It is shameful [aischron] even to mention [legein] what the disobedient do in secret [kryphe].” While that warning is nearly two thousand years old,…
Romans 5:1-11
Lent 3A
Some of Jesus’ friends, including preachers, are so familiar with Paul’s professions in verses 6 and 8 that they’ve lost some of their power to startle us. “When we were still powerless [asthenon*],” the apostle marvels there, “Christ died [apethanen] for the ungodly [asebon].” “While we were still sinners [hamartolon],” he adds in verse 8,…
John 4:5-42
Lent 3A
The John lectionary narratives are especially long over the next few weeks. There is something lovely about simply sitting and reading a story together as a congregation and seeing what parts grab the community’s attention. In fact, that’s not a bad strategy for choosing where to put your focus as a preacher. For me, the…
John 6:24-35: Never Go Hungry: Proper 13B
In the Simon and Garfunkel song Mrs. Robinson, we hear the line, “Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio, a nation turns its lonely eyes to you. What’s that you say, Mrs. Robinson? Joltin’ Joe has left and gone away.” Originally part of the soundtrack for the film The Graduate, the song became one of the…
Philippians 2:5-11: Shining Like Stars – Palm Sunday A
The story is told that one evening a man in a Dearborn, Michigan, restaurant bumped into no less than the famous Chrysler chairman, Lee Iacocca. “Oh, Mr. Iacocca,” the man exclaimed, “what an honor to meet you! Say, my name is Jack and I’m having a business dinner with some colleagues over there at that…
Colossians 2:6-15 (16-19): Filled Up – Proper 12C
One of the finer films from the 1980s is Bruce Beresford’s Tender Mercies. The film chronicles the story of Mac Sledge, a one-time country-western singing star whose life later dissolved into a fog of alcohol and shiftlessness. Divorced from his wife and estranged from his only daughter, Mac staggers through life until one night he…
John 9:1-41: Now I See – Lent 4A
It was probably the big goofy grin on his face that kept some folks from recognizing him. Oh, they’d seen him for years. But rarely had they seen him at eye level. Instead they’d long ago grown accustomed to seeing this hapless man sitting, legs akimbo, on the ground near the entrance to the farmer’s…
Romans 4:1-5, 13-17
Lent 1A
There are no “only children” in God’s adopted family. Since, as Paul insists in this Sunday’s Epistolary Lesson, Abraham is our father, we don’t just have a second (and third — in God) father. We also have countless siblings with whom we now and in the future will share an enormous inheritance. So preachers might…
John 3:1-17
Lent 1A
In the verses just before Nicodemus comes knocking on Jesus’s door, the gospel writer tells us that people were coming to believe in Jesus because of the signs Jesus was doing while in Jerusalem. Then there’s this rather ominous line: “But Jesus on his part would not entrust himself to them… he himself knew what…
Romans 5:12-19
Lent 1A
This first Sunday in Lent offers those who preach on the Revised Common Lectionary’s Epistolary Lesson a chance to proclaim the gospel through some theology about what Jesus came to do. By the power of the Holy Spirit it may even offer a chance to humbly present a corrective to several narrow emphases about the…
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