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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…
Matthew 4:1-11
Lent 1A
Comments, Questions, and Observations What sort of place is the biblical motif of “wilderness” to you? I added biblical intentionally there because I live in a beautiful part of the world where wilderness is part of enjoying recreation and everyday life. If you’ve ever visited Egypt, Jordan, Israel or Palestine, and retraced the steps of…
Matthew 17:1-9
Transfiguration Sunday
There is plenty of reason for Peter and the other disciples to misread the situation on the mountaintop because there is a lot that is eerily reminiscent of key experiences from their people’s story. The legacy lives in their bones and even if they weren’t there, what happened at these holy places is carried in…
2 Peter 1:16-21
Transfiguration Sunday
At first glance this Sunday may seem like a less than ideal Sunday on which to explore what its Epistolary Lesson has to say about the doctrine of inspiration. While, after all, the North American church generally pays little attention to Jesus’ transfiguration, this Transfiguration Sunday gives Jesus’ followers a chance to think about it…
Matthew 5:13-20
Epiphany 5A
How does salt lose its saltiness? Thinking about the salt as it is, one of the ways it will lose its potency is by diluting it, say in a large amount of water. As the salt dissolves and has more and more water added to it, its saltiness won’t be as strong. Or, salt that…
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