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Isaiah 35:4-7
Proper 18B
Is the Anger of God Good News? All the way back in Isaiah 27, the sword of the Lord’s wrath is brought out. We are told in verse 4 that thorns and briers will war against Israel’s enemies, that unless there is peace, God will bring judgment. All of these images are picked back up…
Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-9
Proper 17B
Commentary: Hear and Live “Hear” is a key word in all of Hebrew Scripture, most notably in the Shema, which is the central prayer of Judaism. Perhaps Christians might think of it also as a credal formulation. It goes like this: “hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love…
Psalm 15
Proper 17B
We could summarize and simultaneously contemporize Psalm 15 this way: Who may dwell with God on God’s holy mountain? The one who stays off social media. Or at the very least the one who does not do on social media what altogether too many other people have been doing in the years since Facebook and…
Joshua 24:1-2, 14-18
Proper 16B
Worship Idea: This reading from Hebrew Scripture is a key example of the ancient near-eastern tradition of covenant renewal. It comes at a wonderful spot on the calendar as students in many places are returning to the classroom and folks are finding the rhythm of the school year again. This is a great time to…
Psalm 34:15-22
Proper 16B
So here we are for the third week in a row in Psalm 34, this time centering on the concluding verses. In the first of this Lectionary triplet on this psalm we took note of the fact that this is one of those sunny-side-up poems in the Hebrew Psalter in which everything is coming up…
Psalm 34:9-14
Proper 15B
When I wrote my sermon commentary for August 11, 2024, on the first 8 verses of Psalm 34, I confess I did not notice that the Lectionary continues in this same psalm for this week and, wonder of wonders, finishes it the following week. Three weeks in a row in the same psalm! Not sure…
1 Kings 2:10-12; 3:3-14
Proper 15B
Sermon Illustration: This might work well in the space of a children’s sermon because (speaking from personal experience) kids spend more time dreaming of what they would do with magical wishes in a way that adults — with home repairs, deadlines at work, kids dental work to save for — have moved past. If a…
1 Kings 19:4-8
Proper 14B
Sermon Illustration: During the recent Paris Olympics, I was reminded again of the acronym: G.O.A.T., which stands for Greatest of All Time. While many athletes have claimed the title and a few of them have even earned it, I think the GOAT-iest GOAT in sports is American gymnast, Simone Biles. Her gold medals in Paris…
Psalm 34:1-8
Proper 14B
Let’s say you are going through a tough season in your life. Too much has gone wrong of late and in your head you find yourself returning again and again to that line from the hymn “Abide with Me”: “Death and decay in all around I see.” And let’s say further that one of the…
2 Samuel 11:26-12:13
Proper 13B
It’s possible you got to the end of last week’s text deeply dissatisfied. Uriah, for all his integrity, is dead. David, for all his duplicity, has gotten his way. If this were the end, we might despair of justice and righteousness but, as it turns out, last week’s ending was just the cliff-hanger in a…
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