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1 Peter 4:12-14; 5:6-11
Easter 7A
The novelist Richard Ford said once that the goal of the characters in his novels is this: “All we want is to get to the point where the past can say nothing about us.” In the postmodern world, people hanker to be free-floating. They want to live with the illusion that they are inventing reality…
John 14:15-21
Easter 6A
It’s relatively easy for us these days to read a passage like John 14 and to read it with a sense of detachment. Jesus packs a lot of theology into these 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…
Acts 17:22-31
Easter 6A
How do Acts 17’s preachers, teachers and those who listen to us share our faith with those who know little or nothing about what it means to be a Christian? How do God’s adopted sons and daughters speak the gospel to people for whom words like “grace” and even “sin” may sound like so much…
1 Peter 3:13-22
Easter 6A
Back in the 19th century the Know-Nothing political party came into existence at least partly to demand that the government curb what many American Protestants perceived at the time to be an alarming increase in Roman Catholic immigration to this country. And fifty-seven years ago Senator John F. Kennedy had to appear before a convention…
John 14:1-14
Easter 5A
In the flow of John’s Gospel, what we see in John 14 takes place before the crucifixion. Yet in the Year A Lectionary we read this a month after Good Friday and in the Eastertide season. So what do we see here in John 14 that is startlingly instructive? As we will note, the disciples…
Acts 7:55-60
Easter 5A
Acts 7:55-60 may not be the best text to preach or teach in connection with a church ordaining deacons. In fact, after reading it, we may wonder why anyone would volunteer to serve as a deacon. After all, deacons expect needs that outstrip resources, sometimes impatient needy people and the odd bounced check. But death…
1 Peter 2:2-10
Easter 5A
Whatever you may think about the musical group The Beatles, it is generally acknowledged that few bands have ever paid as much attention to the lonely, invisible people of society as did The Beatles. Two of their songs carry a particular poignancy in this regard. One haunting tune is titled “Nowhere Man.” The song talks…
John 10:1-10
Easter 4A
Mark tells us in Mark 4 that Jesus basically never taught anything without using parables. The Gospel of John famously contains no parables but is instead our sole New Testament source for Jesus’ much-loved “I Am” sayings. But John is honest enough to admit that the “I Am” sayings mostly made no more sense to…
Acts 2:42-47
Easter 4A
Some of the Bible’s most intriguing stories involve events or phenomena that are both unprecedented and unrepeated. In those remarkable but rare instances God is uniquely present. However, even those wonderful stories are always only just a beginning. So when a barefoot shepherd stands before a bush that burns but never burns up, God is…
1 Peter 2:19-25
Easter 4A
If even once you have seen the photo, you know you’ll never forget it. Not so long ago in this country, it was both legal and commonplace to post signs in public places designed to cordon off some people from others. And so a drinking fountain in a hallway might be labeled “Whites Only.” A…
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