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Jeremiah 8:18-9:1
Proper 20C
Illustration: The Emperor’s New Clothes is a wonderful parable for explaining the prophet’s task. The prophet is not the only person who knows or notices what is true. The prophet is the one who foregoes pretense and is unafraid to say the quiet part out loud. In the classic children’s story, it is a young…
Psalm 113
Proper 20C
Many of us have been taught that sometimes it is helpful to read passages from the perspective of those who find themselves on the underside of history. This may be especially true of famous pieces of writing that we are perhaps too accustomed to reading from the vantage point of those who tend to come…
Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28
Proper 19C
The Politics of Babylon Jeremiah is coming at God’s people with every attempt he can think of in hopes of stirring them out of complacency. The emotional appeals run the gamut: grief, anger, provocation, reasoning, coaxing. He sees the people jockeying for power, attempting alliances with this super-power and then another. He observes their systemic…
Psalm 51:1-10
Proper 19C
Even allowing for poetic license, it is a little difficult to know what to do with Psalm 51:6. Despite in the previous verse having referenced what we often call the doctrine of Original Sin—we are sinful from the get-go and thus not only after we commit an actual sin—in verse 6 the claim is made…
Jeremiah 18:1-11
Proper 18C
Illustration: One of the most delightful challenges of pastoring is attempting answer kids’ questions about God. They are unfiltered and haven’t yet learned the church rules dictating what one can wonder, ask or assert about who God is and how God works in the world. (Maybe this is what Jesus intended when he wished that…
Psalm 1 2025
Proper 18C
The Hebrew Psalter opens with a beatitude. But unlike Jesus’s well-known Beatitudes in Matthew 5 and Luke 6, Psalm 1’s blessing is not for something a given person is or does. No, this blessing gets pronounced over those who do not engage in certain activities. As beatitudes go, then, this one is rather different. A…
Psalm 112 2025
Proper 17C
Depending on where you are “at” these days, it could well be the case that reading Psalm 112 is a little difficult. Sunny promises tumble over top of one another in these ten short verses. Lyric descriptions of all the good things that come to righteous and good people stack up like cord wood. There…
Jeremiah 2:4-13 2025
Proper 17C
Kicked When You Are Down Immediately, in chapter two, Jeremiah seems to be working counter one of MLK’s principles of non-violent resistance. That resistance “seeks to win friendship and understanding.” Instead, against the backdrop of Babylon’s siege of Jerusalem, Jeremiah seems to be standing over the people saying, “you know, if you think about it,…
Psalm 103:1-8 2025
Proper 16C
As lyric psalms go, it is tough to beat Psalm 103. The RCL is having us look at only the first eight of the psalm’s twenty-two verses but we know this poem stays on high notes of beauty and praise throughout. In a couple of the congregations to which I have belonged the pastors used…
Jeremiah1:4-10 2025
Proper 16C
Context I’m spending a bit more time this week on some background information, as well as a potential framing for a series (see below: Illustration) since we are going to be in Jeremiah for much of the late summer and fall. In fact, the book of Jeremiah provides far more in terms of historical context…
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