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Psalm 25:1-10
Advent 1C
Comments, Observations, and Questions to Consider How in the world can we preach or teach a Psalm on a Sunday when most of our listeners are already thinking about and mostly interested in getting ready for Christmas? If they’re thinking about anything Scriptural, many Christians are thinking about Matthew and Luke’s accounts of Jesus’ conception…
Jeremiah 33:14-16
Advent 1C
Acoustics are so key. How does a text sound? Usually you need to pay attention to the context to figure that out. But when you dive into the middle of a text like this lection, you can so easily miss or forget that wider context. But remembering it can change the acoustics pretty significantly. After…
Psalm 132:1-18
Proper 29B
Comments, Observations, and Questions to Consider This psalm may seem about as relevant to 21st century worshipers as a repair manual for a Model T or instructions for preserving papyrus. It, after all, focuses on David, who has been dead for a long time, and Zion, which no longer has the kind of meaning it…
2 Samuel 23:1-7
Proper 29B
Comments and Observations: The so-called “last words of David” are curiously placed. For one thing, there is quite a bit more action involving David in the balance of even 2 Samuel. But there will be more words and more narrative to come in also the opening portion of 1 Kings. It’s as though the author…
1 Samuel 2:1-10
Proper 28B
Comments, Observations, and Questions to Consider (NOTE: The Revised Common Lectionary occasionally substitutes an OT reading for a Psalm, as is this case on this particular Sunday in Year B) While I Samuel 2:1-10 is not part of the book of Psalms, it’s like a psalm in that it’s a song of praise and thanksgiving…
1 Samuel 1:4-20
Proper 28B
It’s curious how often the purposes of God move forward not just despite familial dysfunction but sometimes even because of it. We’ve got a load of dysfunction coming up in the Samuel story through the shenanigans of Hophni and Phineas—and Eli’s hand-wringing inability to do a blessed thing about it all. But we’ve got nettlesome…
Psalm 127
Proper 27B
Comments, Observations, and Questions to Consider Few psalms are arguably more challenging to preach and teach than this somewhat quirky one. After all, it contains neither the vows nor calls to praise that characterize so many other psalms. Psalm 127, in fact, more closely resembles the kind of wisdom literature we find more commonly in…
Ruth 3:1-5, 4:13-17
Proper 27B
Comments and Observations: The Lectionary has us skip the drama of Ruth 2 and then dips in briefly to Ruth 3 for the connection with Boaz and then zooms ahead to the very end of Ruth 4 for the “happy ending” of the tale and how it all points forward to King David. As preachers,…
Psalm 146
Proper 26B
Comments, Observations, and Questions to Consider This psalm marks the beginning of the end of God’s peoples’ songbook. It’s one of five doxologies that offer resounding praise to the Lord. It’s appropriate the psalmist should end this way. After all, she sees praise as a lifelong vocation and privilege. After all, Psalm 146’s poet twice…
Ruth 1:1-18
Proper 26B
To my mind stopping the reading of Ruth 1 at verse 18 is the narrative equivalent of ending the movie Field of Dreams just before the moment when Ray encounters his long-dead and estranged father on his magical Iowa baseball diamond. Why stop short of the scene that brings the whole thing together!? So trust…
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