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Psalm 121
Lent 1A
At a conference I attended recently, a woman who works as a psychologist and counselor addressed the topic of trauma in conversation with the Book of Psalms. She related a story from decades ago when her then-boyfriend became paralyzed following a devastating biking accident. In the midst of her grief and sorrow over this turn…
Genesis 12:1-4
Lent 1A
Illustration In chapter 12 of the book, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years, Donald Miller tells the story of his friend Jason. Jason and his wife had a 13-year-old daughter. And their 13-year-old daughter had pot stashed in her closet. She had a boyfriend too. And she had a father who was terrified of…
Genesis 2:15-17, 3:1-7
Lent 1A
Illustration One of the most compelling recent apologetics for sin comes, ironically, from Francis Spufford’s book, Unapologetic: Why, Despite Everything, Christianity Can Still Make Surprising Emotional Sense. Emerging from a long line of once-skeptical British intellectuals returning to Christian faith and finding that it does, in fact, “make surprising emotional sense.” In his second chapter,…
Psalm 32
Lent 1A
Although like most Woody Allen films the movie Crimes and Misdemeanors has more than a few comedic moments, in the end the movie is also quite chilling. The more comedic moments in the film involve a hapless documentary filmmaker named Cliff Stern (played by Allen). Cliff’s life is in some ways falling apart. His marriage…
Ezekiel 37:1-14: Can These Bones Live? – Lent 5A
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 Kosovo. Our…
Exodus 24:12-18
Transfiguration Sunday
Worship Connection Transfiguration Sunday offers a bridge every year from Epiphany, the season of light, to Lent, the season of Ash. What light and ash have in common is fire, which creates both. Although the Transfiguration Gospel text from Matthew doesn’t name fire as an element in the Transfiguration of Christ, many of the images…
Psalm 99
Transfiguration Sunday
The Lectionary gives us two choices for a psalm lection on Transfiguration Sunday in Year A. Both Psalm 2 and Psalm 99 work the same side of the street in terms of celebrating God as the ultimate King and then also the kings of Israel in Jerusalem who are God’s chosen representatives, who serve as…
Isaiah 58:1-12
Epiphany 5A
Because I prepare about a month early, I am reading these words against the backdrop of ICE raids, of terrorized people and extrajudicial killing in detention facilities and on the streets of Minneapolis. As I settled into my seat to review the text before diving into commentaries, I read these words and my body tensed,…
Psalm 112:1-9 (10)
Epiphany 5A
It’s never terribly clear to me just what it means when the Revised Common Lectionary puts a single verse in parentheses. It’s the final verse, verse 10, of Psalm 112 that gets that treatment. Maybe it’s meant to say “Include it in your sermon or don’t—it’s up to you.” They are not skipping that verse…
Psalm 15
Epiphany 4A
It’s a pretty tall order spiritually speaking. The job description for the person who can dwell in God’s sacred place stacks up pretty fast and in the end sketches an ideal and nearly perfect person. Indeed, when we read this, the thought all-but inevitably occurs to us that really, the only person who ever fit…
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