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Psalm 29
Epiphany 1B
Comments, Observations, and Questions to Consider Psalm 29 is a hymn of praise to the God of creation. It’s a rather “noisy” psalm that the poet fills with the sounds of praise, thunder, wind and even the sound that earthquakes make. It’s a psalm that the psalmist also fills with vivid images of angels around…
Genesis 1:1-5
Epiphany 1B
Comments and Observations “The first day.” That is how this Year B Lectionary text concludes. There was a morning and there was an evening and together they constituted “the first day.” Of course, even in the text of Genesis it’s difficult to know just what that means. Within the sequence of just these first 5…
Psalm 147:12-20
Christmas 2B
Comments, Observations, and Questions to Consider James Limburg writes, “January has always seemed to be something of a letdown.” After all, even if, as T.S. Eliot writes, “April is the cruelest month,” January is the coldest month, at least in many parts of North America. Christmas’ excitement generally allows North Americans to look past December’s…
Jeremiah 37:7-14
Christmas 2B
You can’t accuse the Old Testament prophets of not being specific enough when it came to describing the blessings of God’s salvation! Sometimes believers today content themselves with generic or generalized descriptions of felicity in “heaven,” sometimes not advancing in their views of the New Creation much beyond the wispy, cloudy, ethereal realm that New…
Psalm 148
Christmas 1B
Psalm 148 is a stirring call to praise that’s strikingly reminiscent of Francis of Assisi’s beautiful hymn, “All Creatures of our God and King.” It’s an invitation to “all creatures of our God and King” to lift up their “voices and with us sing, alleluia, alleluia.” In fact, Psalm 148 doesn’t just, with so many…
Isaiah 61:10-62:3
Christmas 1B
Comments, Observations, and Questions The First Sunday after Christmas is something of an odd moment in the church’s year. Many in the church regard it as somewhat anticlimactic following whatever big services, concerts, and other celebrations and programs that probably accompanied the run-up to Christmas Day and then whatever special services got held on Christmas…
Psalm 89:1-4, 19-26
Advent 4B
Notes and Observations Most scholars recognize that Psalm 89 is a psalm of lament. Yet the poet devotes most of it to praising God for God’s faithfulness and celebrating God’s covenant with David and his descendants. Even the segment toward which the lectionary directs our attention this week seems reluctant to highlight the lament aspect…
2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16
Advent 4B
Comments and Observations What’s the deal with Nathan in 2 Samuel 7? When King David came to the prophet to suggest that he was feeling guilty for not having built God as nice a house as the palace he had just built for himself—and that therefore he was minded to rectify the situation by getting…
Isaiah 9:1-7
Christmas Eve
Sample Sermon: History is full of tragic figures who had great potential, who had perhaps even risen to prominence, only to fall from the very heights they had worked so hard to scale. Often what accounts for the downfall of a leader is the fact that he or she possessed either great wisdom or great…
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