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Numbers 21:4-9
Lent 4B
In our Lenten journey this year, the RCL has been focusing on the theme of God’s covenant—with Noah and all creation, with Abraham and his descendants, with Israel at Sinai, and next week with the world as promised through Jeremiah’s words to the Exiles. In our reading for today, we have a vivid picture of…
Psalm 19
Lent 3B
Since I began teaching preaching about 15 years ago, one of the things I find myself most often urging students to do is pay good attention to their transitions. Segues, metonymy, giving listeners little verbal hooks inside the sermon to help folks track the sermon’s forward progress: all of these things are vital to good…
Exodus 20:1-17
Lent 3B
On this Third Sunday of Lent, the RCL continues its focus on the theme of covenant. Though our immediate text does not mention covenant, it is very clear from the context (Exodus 19-24) that the Ten Commandments are part of a covenant making ceremony between the God who liberated his people and those liberated people. …
Psalm 22:23-31
Lent 2B
In this week’s Gospel sermon article here on the CEP website I noted the dramatic experience of Peter in Mark 8 when he falls about as far as a person can fall within the span of minutes. Peter goes from being blessed to the heavens by Jesus to being cursed to the depths of hell…
Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16
Lent 2B
As any regular reader of my Sermon Commentaries on these Old Testament readings can easily tell, the theme for Lent in Year B of the Revised Common Lectionary is covenant. Every one of our Lenten readings has to do with God’s covenant in one way or another, even our upcoming lesson from Numbers 21, which…
Psalm 25:1-10
Lent 1B
Samuel Johnson is reported to have once said something to the effect that we need more often to be reminded than instructed. And perhaps the RCL thinks so too since Psalm 25 was assigned a few months ago near the end of September. Probably what I wrote then—most of which is the content of this…
Genesis 9:8-17
Lent 1B
As we begin our annual Lenten journey to the cross and the tomb, our Old Testament reading takes us to the new journey of the human race after The Flood. In words that almost directly parallel the Genesis account of creation, the opening verses of Genesis 9 lay out God’s mandates for the new human…
Psalm 50:1-6
Epiphany 6B
Read just the first six verses of Psalm 50—as the Lectionary would have us do apparently—and it all looks grand. It is a powerful summation of the almighty power of Israel’s God. The imagery is majestic and even fierce. God sallies forth from Mount Zion cloaked in splendor with tempests and fires and bright flashes…
2 Kings 2:1-12
Epiphany 6B
The compilers of the Revised Common Lectionary have done us preachers a real favor by pairing this Old Testament reading with the story of Jesus Transfiguration in Mark 9. This juxtaposition of texts will save us from preaching on the importance of mentoring (as many folks will do because the relationship between Elijah and Elisha…
Symposium 2021: We Should Be Dancing
W.H. Auden wrote, “I know nothing, except what everyone knows—if there when Grace dances, I should dance.” It’s clear that David knew that good truth, but I’m going to have to disagree with Auden, because not everyone seems to know how important dancing can be. For instance, did you know that up until 1995—1995!—dancing was…
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