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Acts 2:1-21
Pentecost A
Every pulpit veteran has preached on this story many times, but this year we have a ready-made angle into it. We have seen more than our share of violent winds the past year, haven’t we? Hurricanes in the Caribbean, tornadoes all over the South, and in my home territory of West Michigan those bomb cyclones…
1 Corinthians 12:3b-13
Pentecost A
God’s adopted sons and daughters profess that the Holy Spirit graciously gives us a relationship not only with Jesus Christ, but also with other Christians. The Spirit whose Pentecost Christians celebrate on this Sunday links us not only to Christ our brother, but also our adopted brothers and sisters in Christ. God’s people generally like…
John 17:1-11
Easter 7A
Every once in a while someone discovers a recording that until then no one knew existed. Maybe it’s John F. Kennedy on the phone with Nikita Khrushchev. Or it’s some other famous person having a conversation with yet another high profile person. Once the recording comes out, it’s fascinating because now we get to eavesdrop…
Acts 1:6-14
Easter 7A
On this Seventh Sunday of the Easter season, it is fitting that the first reading is about the Ascension of Jesus. There is a real sense in which Jesus’ resurrection and his ascension are two parts of one glorious act; he rose from the dead and he kept rising into heaven. Between the two risings…
1 Peter 4:12-14; 5:6-11
Easter 7A
Eliza Griswold’s The Tenth Parallel: Dispatches From the Fault Line Between Christianity and Islam chronicles her travels along the 10th parallel. In it she notes that many Muslims and Christians live and work close to each other along that parallel. Peter wouldn’t surprise either Christians or Muslims in those areas when he says, “Your enemy…
John 14:15-21
Easter 6A
It’s possible I suppose to read a passage like John 14 and do so with a sense of detachment. Jesus packs a lot of theology into these Farewell Discourses across John 13-17 and it can be a little tough sledding to get through it all. Thus, it is tempting to be a little cut-and-dried, a…
Acts 17:22-31
Easter 6A
On this sixth Sunday of the Easter season, we continue our reflections on the Resurrection of Jesus with this fascinating story which shows us how Paul preached the Risen Christ on the continent of Europe. Directed by the Holy Spirit to leave Asia, Paul worked his way down the coast of the Aegean Sea to…
1 Peter 3:13-22
Easter 6A
Many of this Sunday’s Epistolary Lesson’s proclaimers and hearers live in among the freest countries in the history of the world. What’s more, our post post post-modern culture is fascinated with all things spiritual and religious. Yet at least some of us are nervous about giving free and interested people “the reason for the hope…
John 14:1-14
Easter 5A
“Let not your hearts be troubled . . .” If ever there were a word for our COVID-19 moment, this would be it. And in more ways than the merely obvious one. As we will explore, most of the time when someone—even when it’s Jesus—tells you to NOT let your heart be troubled it is…
Acts 7:55-60
Easter 5A
On this fifth Sunday of the Easter season, we continue our journey through the Acts of the Apostles or, as some call it, the Acts of the Holy Spirit. That title fits Luke’s constant emphasis on the role of the Holy Spirit in the growth of the early church. That is surely the case in…
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