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Amos 8:1-12
Proper 11C
A delightfully humorous Lutheran pastor in Arizona has trained his congregation how to respond to his annual stewardship sermon. When he announces that sermon, they say in loud unison what all congregants think when they hear that it is stewardship Sunday. “Oh no!” That will undoubtedly be your congregation’s response when you tell them that…
Psalm 25:1-10
Proper 10C
In his book years ago The Closing of the American Mind Allan Bloom lamented the decline of true education in this nation’s colleges and universities. Bloom decried the way many professors had dispensed with the traditional canons of literature in favor of whatever was trendy and vogue. He mourned the fact that critical thinking and…
Amos 7:7-17
Proper 10C
Your average preacher will not choose this testy passage from Amos to preach on today. Amos is not a book to read if you are in need of easy encouragement. I cannot imagine the perpetually smiling Joel Osteen preaching on this text. Maybe you cannot imagine yourself doing that either. I mean, what can this…
Psalm 66:1-9
Proper 9C
A bit cheeky. A goodly dose of chutzpah. A tad forward. You have to admire the psalmists who on many occasions are not the least bit adverse to ordering the whole world to praise the God of Israel. Make no mistake: all those “Praise the Lord” lines in so many of the psalms are in…
2 Kings 5:1-14
Proper 9C
This story has more interesting characters than a novel by Charles Dickens—stormin’ Naaman, commander of the Syrian army, this brave little girl kidnapped from Israel and enslaved, the clueless King of Israel, the greedy Gehazi, and, of course, the unflappable prophet Elisha. It’s a seemingly straightforward story about a little girl, a muddy river, and…
Psalm 16
Proper 8C
Psalm 16 presents the words of a person whose life appears to be going swimmingly. Everything is working for this poet. These look to be the words of a winner, of a person who was born sunny-side up as a confirmed optimist. And I suspect we’ve all met people like this. I also suspect that…
2 Kings 2:1-2, 6-14
Proper 8C
What a way to go! That’s my first reaction upon reading this story. People my age often talk about the end of life. Many want to live as long as they possibly can, to, say, a hundred, and then die peacefully in their sleep. Others want to go in their prime, after hitting a three…
Psalm 22:19-28
Proper 7C
Ordinary Time is just beginning in the early summertime of 2019 yet the Lectionary directs us to a sometimes difficult psalm. Yes, we are being asked to consider only the hope-filled, praise-filled conclusion to this poem but it’s not as though we can forget its terrible opening set of verses. “My God, my God, why…
1 Kings 19:1-4, (5-7), 8-15a
Proper 7C
This is one of the great short stories in the Bible, indeed, in all of literature. It has all the elements of a riveting story—a twisting plot, clever symbolism, stylistic devices, unexpected irony, deep pathos, raw humanity, stunning theophanies, and an ending that we don’t see coming. But best of all, it speaks a message…
Psalm 8
Trinity Sunday C
The poet of Psalm 8 stared into the night sky and was properly dazzled at what he saw. But to put it mildly, what he did not see was a lot! Had this psalmist been able to spend a scant ten minutes looking through a telescope, he would doubtless have fainted in wonderment. Ancient astronomers…
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