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Psalm 111
Epiphany 4B
You have to like the fact that a psalm that claims God has worked to make sure his deeds are remembered is itself written as an acrostic in the original Hebrew precisely as an aid to memorizing the psalm! Beginning each of the 22 lines of this poem with successive letters in the Hebrew alphabet…
Deuteronomy 18:15-20
Epiphany 4B
Judges, Kings, Priests and Prophets – oh my! Up to this point in Deuteronomy, the law has spelled out the role of kings and judges and priests. Each is invested with a distinct kind of institutional authority. However, over time, in the history of Israel and her people, these roles began to take on a…
Jonah 3:1-5, 10
Epiphany 3B
A common exercise for aspiring creative writers is to write a 6 word story. With the platform of social media, these short stories have taken off on sites like Reddit and Tumbler. Here are a couple examples: “Axe falling, the rooster crows, ‘Wait!’” “Only child, but never the favorite.” “They lived happily ever after, separately.”…
Psalm 62:5-12
Epiphany 3B
As usual when we encounter this phenomenon in the Revised Common Lectionary, it is unclear why this lection sheers off the first 4 verses. Certainly one can preach on Psalm 62 starting with verse 5 and the psalm is not particularly diminished. But why not let a sermon on this encompass the whole thing? In…
Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18
Epiphany 2B
It may be somewhat understandable that the Lectionary would have us stop short of this psalm’s sudden shift in tone starting in verse 19. A poem that had been 100% a lyric reflection on the abiding presence of God somehow briefly morphs into a full-throated imprecation against the wicked. This seems to come up like…
1 Samuel 3:1-10, (13-20)
Epiphany 2B
Calling In the context of this morning’s Gospel reading and perhaps even some elements of the psalm, a straightforward reading might catalog this text under the genre of “call stories.” There are plenty of texts that fall in this category throughout Scripture: Abraham, Moses, Saul, David, the prophets and, yes, the disciples called by Jesus:…
Genesis 1:1-5
Epiphany 1B
Not How But Why A great deal of ink has been spilled on these opening chapters of Genesis, particularly in the last 200 years. With perceived threats from science, particularly evolutionary science, Christians have been anxious to make sense of Scripture’s creation narrative. Literal 24 hour days or day-age theory? A gap large enough for…
Psalm 29
Epiphany 1B
Last summer a tornado ripped through our area. It did not come very close to where I live but for those in and near its path, it was frightening. Whole homes were destroyed and in some places so many trees came down, you could not recognize whole neighborhoods. A man with whom I chatted this…
Isaiah 61:10-62:3
Christmas 1B
Rejoicing in Salvation For those churches that celebrate a strict Advent fast from Christmas hymns, this Sunday lands with all the pent-up energy of the season. Church musicians stuff this service full of all the carols that wouldn’t fit on Christmas Eve or Christmas morning worship. There are plenty of “Joy to the Worlds” and…
Psalm 148
Christmas 1B
No moment on the annual calendar gets more associated with popping champagne corks than New Year’s Eve. So it is appropriate that on this last Sunday and day of 2023 the Lectionary directs us to Psalm 148, which is in its own way a fizzing and frothing bottle of champagne in word form. It is…
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