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Psalm 116:1-4, 12-19
Easter 3A
Across these past few highly unsettled and unsettling years around the world, Psalm 116 has provided thoughts that are at once inspirational and aspirational. It is inspirational in its witness to God’s faithfulness in hearing our cries of distress from places of disorientation and even death. It is aspirational in that—as in all times of…
Psalm 16
Easter 2A
Probably we misread Psalm 16, or at least its most famous verses about how our bodies will rest secure. We have all been to our share of funerals that lift out verses 9-11 and put a resurrection spin on them. And maybe as Christians exegeting the Old Testament there is something right about that. All…
Psalm 118:1, 2, 14-24
Easter Day A
What every preacher needs on Easter Sunday is an angle. Everyone already knows the story, so it is hard to astonish people as the women astonished the disciples with the news of an empty tomb on that first Easter morning. To help people experience that primitive astonishment and the kind of joyful thanksgiving to which…
Psalm 31:9-16
Palm Sunday
Psalm 31:11 says “I am an object of dread to my neighbors; those who see me on the street flee from me.” I suppose we all have our days when we feel like this but mostly we chalk it up to paranoia. “I am just imagining that everyone I meet is averting their eyes.” “It’s…
Isaiah 50:4-9a
Palm Sunday
Although one would think the Old Testament offers up lots of compelling possible Lectionary texts for Palm/Passion Sunday, the RCL likes Isaiah 50 for this particular day and so assigns it in Years A, B, and C. It is definitely a text that tilts away from all things “Triumphal Entry” and more definitively in the…
Ezekiel 37:1-14
Lent 5A
Sample sermon: It is a sad statement on the last 100 years that we can rather easily imagine the scene Ezekiel describes in his famous 37th chapter. Whether or not the people in Ezekiel’s original audience had ever seen such a valley full of bones, we have. We’ve seen the mass graves of Auschwitz and…
Psalm 130
Lent 5A
This poem is labeled a “Psalm of Ascent” but it starts as a Psalm of Descent. It is called De Profundis in older Bibles—the Latin for “from the depths.” When last this came up for the Lectionary Year A Fifth Sunday in Lent in 2020, the initial COVID lockdown was in its second week. Some…
1 Samuel 16:1-13
Lent 4A
“Then the Lord regretted he had made Saul king.” That’s the last line in 1 Samuel 15. Apparently, however, God got over his regret sooner than did Samuel. Because as chapter 16 opens, Samuel appears to still be moping around in grief whereas God comes to him and says, “Chin up! Let’s get past this…
Psalm 23
Lent 4A
Psalm 23 is hands-down the most famous of the 150 psalms in the Psalter. In terms of recognizability, Psalm 23 is probably right up there with popular ditties like “Roses are red, violets are blue,” with Shakespearean sonnets like “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day,” and well-known song lyrics like “Happy birthday to…
Exodus 17:1-7
Lent 3A
It’s the kind of thing that could become a family inside joke. Perhaps years before, the family had taken a Spring Break trip somewhere. Except that on this particular trip the weather was disastrously bad the whole week. No outdoor activities were possible. Instead the family got stuck inside a hotel room where arguments over…
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