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Psalm 34:1-8 (19-22)
Proper 25B
Psalm 34 blends thanksgiving to God for answering prayer with teaching about the kind of godliness that’s the most appropriate response to God’s salvation. Yet as the NIV Study Bible points out, that combination makes this psalm somewhat unique. After all, most psalms’ thanksgiving leads to calls to others to join in that praise. There’s…
Job 42:1-6, 10-17
Proper 25B
Comments, Observations, and Questions And they lived happily ever after . . . Really? Is it really possible that the Bible’s most troubled (and at times most torturous) book has the proverbial “happy ending”? Did Disney take over this project at some point?! At first glance you might think so. Job replies to God that…
Psalm 91:9-16
Proper 24B
Comments, Observations, and Questions to Consider Psalm 91 is a profession of God’s protective care. It’s a deeply beloved psalm, particularly by people who find themselves under some kind of duress. In fact, the church father Athanasius reportedly told a colleague, “If you desire to establish yourself and others in devotion, to know what confidence…
Job 38
Proper 24B
Comments and Observations: Why did this happen? Why didn’t God prevent this? Or, very often it’s “Pastor, why did this happen? Pastor, where is God?” A child dies, a good person is killed, a freak accident takes the life of someone who was unspeakably precious to us, and we are left to wonder why. And…
Psalm 22:1-15
Proper 23B
Comments, Observations, and Questions to Consider Psalm 22 is a psalm of lament that expresses the poet’s anguish at his enemies’ relentless and ferocious attacks on him. It contains the kind of honesty with God that 21st century Christians seem sometimes reluctant to express. So how does such a lament fit into the season of…
Job 23:1-9; 16-17
Proper 23B
Comments and Observations: If you read the John Grisham novel The Firm, you may recall the horrifying moment when a young lawyer and his wife discover that the house so “generously” provided to them by the young man’s law firm is bugged to the hilt. Every conversation they had had, every lovemaking sigh, every TV…
Psalm 26
Proper 22B
Comments, Observations, and Questions to Consider Psalm 26 is the poet’s plea for God’s “vindication.” It pictures a courtroom in which the poet-defendant begs the judge to declare her innocent. In it she insists she’s innocent because she has led what she calls a “blameless life” (1). Yet such a plea seems to clash with…
Job 1:1, 2:1-10
Proper 22B
Comments and Observations: Lately I have been doing some reading of books that try to teach people how to become better writers. Specifically these are books to help aspiring novelists hone the necessary skills that might one day help them to garner that much-coveted acceptance letter from a publisher. One essay that I read recently…
Psalm 124
Proper 21B
Comments, Observations, and Questions to Consider Psalm 124 is a psalm of praise for God’s deliverance from fearsome enemies. Yet those familiar with Reformed expressions of the Christian faith may recognize that Reformed worship services sometimes begin at Psalm 124’s end. After all, John Calvin’s Genevan and Strasburg liturgies placed verse 8’s “Our help is…
Esther 7:1-6, 9-10; 9:20-22
Proper 21B
Comments and Observations: There is not much Esther in the Revised Common Lectionary, and few pastors have ever complained or requested more. The Lectionary likewise does little with Song of Songs or Jude, and if you follow only the Lectionary, you would be unlikely to generate a long series of sermons on Nahum or Revelation,…
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