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Psalm 92:1-4,12-15
Proper 6B
What’s in verses 5-11? This lection from Psalm 92 is one of many RCL texts that clearly skips a certain section of a passage, forcing the curious Bible student to wonder why a chunk gets leapfrogged over. Psalm 92 is hardly too long for a single reading or sermon. Yet the Lectionary deletes almost exactly…
1 Samuel 15:34-16:13
Proper 6B
This old story about God’s choice of David as the new king of Israel fairly bubbles with contemporary relevance, especially in America. I wrote the first draft of this Sermon Commentary just a few weeks after the inauguration of the Biden/Harris team. The words of Shakespeare’s witches of Eastwick described the national mood perfectly: “Double,…
Psalm 130
Proper 5B
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.” It is certainly a curious, perhaps an almost stark, way to begin 2021’s Season of Ordinary Time! And yet this psalm fits this time, these past…
1 Samuel 8:4-11, (12-15), 16-20, (11:14-15)
Proper 5B
After our celebrations of the mighty acts of God from Advent to Pentecost, the prospect of entering Ordinary Time might seem like a bit of a downer. But the Old Testament readings for the next couple of months plunge us right into the kind of social and political turmoil that characterizes our own time. To…
Psalm 29
Trinity Sunday B
You can find an article with sermon ideas for Psalm 29 a total of 9 times in the Sermon Commentary Archive here on CEP. That is because in all three Lectionary cycles of Years A, B, and C, Psalm 29 is always assigned for the first Sunday after Epiphany/Baptism of Christ and for Trinity Sunday….
Isaiah 6:1-8
Trinity Sunday B
Using this prophetic text for Trinity Sunday will take a bit of exegetical ingenuity. You will have to use strong New Testament glasses to find the Trinity here. But, on the other hand, this is a perfect text for the transition from the celebration of the Great Feasts of the church year to Ordinary Time,…
Psalm 104:24-34, 35b
Pentecost B
You have to look pretty close to figure out what brings the latter portion of Psalm 104 to the fore on Pentecost Sunday. But then you read verse 30 and perhaps you are reading a translation that capitalizes the word “Spirit” there, and then you connect the Lectionary dots. That capital “S” signals that the…
Psalm 47
Easter 7B
Sample sermon: How We See Things [Since Ascension Day is May 13 and the Sunday after it can also be Ascension Sunday, I am posting a sample Ascension Day sermon based on the Lectionary’s Ascension Day psalm text of Psalm 47.] One of the most mind-boggling spectacles I’ve ever seen is a short science movie…
Psalm 98
Easter 6B
Reading Psalm 98 is like uncorking a well shook-up bottle of champagne. The cork rockets upward and the bubbly inside the bottle fountains forth in exuberance. We’ve all seen those locker rooms after a team wins the World Series or the Super Bowl when players spray each other with such bottles—some years ago someone finally…
Psalm 22:25-31
Easter 5B
Let’s try a little thought experiment: imagine running across a long-ish narrative poem that began with something like, “The one I love torments me day and night, insults me in private and in public. She has made me out to be a villain, and I rue the day I ever met her at times. Who…
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