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Mark 1:4-11
Epiphany 1B
Fans of Peter Jackson’s films in The Lord of the Rings trilogy will recall the opening sequence in the final film, The Return of the King. As the movie opens, we are taken back hundreds of years from the main action of the trilogy to the time when Smeagol finds the Ring of power, murdering…
Acts 19:1-7
Epiphany 1B
Some of us have had the experience of being challenged as to whether we have really received the baptism of the Holy Spirit or not. Speaking in tongues is not something I have ever experienced, and while I have no reason to doubt the authenticity of those who have received that gift, its lack in…
Luke 2:22-40
Christmas 1B
It’s amazing how much detail Luke gives us. If Luke were a movie, it would have been directed by Cecil B. DeMille with a cast of thousands and long, lingering scenes on most every situation imaginable. The Gospel of Mark by comparison is like a PowerPoint presentation where the presenter goes way too fast through…
Galatians 4:4-7
Christmas 1B
Whenever a child is born, there is a change in status for various people. When a first child is born, someone becomes a mother for the first time or a father. The birth of a child can confer the new status of “grandparent” on someone or perhaps “uncle” or “aunt.” A new child can turn…
Luke 1:26-38
Advent 4B
Biblical scholars call passages like Luke 1 “type scenes.” A modern kind of “type scene” might be something like this: one evening while channel-surfing, you run across a movie already in progress. It’s obviously a Western with two cowboys standing about thirty yards apart in the middle of a dusty street. Each man is glaring…
Romans 16:25-27
Advent 4B
How does one say goodbye? Paul faced that in every letter he wrote but perhaps his most curious—and in its own way most moving—farewell comes at the end of Romans 16. Actually all of chapter 16 is an extended farewell. In fact, for this sermon commentary I am going to widen out the Lectionary text…
John 1:6-8, 19-28
Advent 3B
“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 together at the banks…
1 Thessalonians 5:16-24
Advent 3B
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 to “the Parousia of…
Mark 1:1-8
Advent 2B
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 little bed—a bed…
2 Peter 3:8-15a
Advent 2B
“Like re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.” So some Christians have characterized ecological stewardship efforts within the church. And it is not difficult to discern why parts of this passage in 2 Peter 3 have been used to prop up the idea that Christians who work to save the environment are battling a lost…
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