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Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11
Advent 3B
We often connect much of the Christmas season to happiness. God’s people love to sing, “Joy to the World.” We decorate our homes, stores and communities with bright lights. Most of us like to celebrate with both the young in age and the young in heart. This Sunday, however, is also a part of a…
Psalm 85:1-2, 8-13
Advent 2B
Psalm 85 is a fine choice for this second Sunday of Advent. Anticipating the Gospel reading from Mark 1 in which John the Baptist begins to announce that salvation is near, verse 9 declares, “Surely his salvation is near those who fear him.” In the same vein, verse 13 concludes the Psalm with words that…
Isaiah 40:1-11
Advent 2B
Today “comfort” conjures up a cloud of images ranging from La-Z-Boy recliners to Royal Caribbean cruises. “Comfort food” is all about the personal satisfaction that can come from mashed potatoes and meatloaf. “Creature comforts” are all about having the nicest stuff even as the words “luxury and comfort” get yoked to describe things like the…
Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19
Advent 1B
In all three years of the Lectionary cycle, Psalm 80 is seen as an Advent Psalm, probably because of the central prayer in verse 2; “come and save us.” In years A and C, it is the last Psalm of Advent. This year, it is the first Psalm of Advent. Its use here in the…
Isaiah 64:1-9
Advent 1B
It’s always tempting for those who preach and teacher God’s Word to talk more about prayer than actually pray. So those who proclaim Isaiah 64 won’t just want to explore, exegete and apply it carefully this week. We’ll also want to actually spend time praying, perhaps using its structure and themes to do so. The…
Psalm 100
Proper 29A
It is interesting that the Lectionary begins and ends Ordinary Time with Psalm 100. We looked at this beloved Psalm back on June 18, the second Sunday of Ordinary Time. Now we return to it on this last Sunday, when we celebrate the fact that Christ is King of all the earth. If you preached…
Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24
Proper 29A
If you are searching for things to include under the heading “The Oddities of Scripture,” you likely could do no better than perusing the various chapters of Ezekiel. The book opens with a vision so strange that not a few people in the last century concluded that Ezekiel witnessed a UFO replete with extraterrestrials. (Back…
Psalm 123
Proper 28A
Psalm 123 is the fourth of the Songs of Ascent (Psalms 120-134) and the first that is a prayer. Most scholars think that Israelite pilgrims from all over the Promised Land (and perhaps beyond, if this is an early post-Exilic Psalm) sang these words as they journeyed up to Jerusalem and maybe even as they…
Judges 4:1-7
Proper 28A
You’d probably have to thumb through a lot of children’s Bible story books before you’d find a retelling of Judges 4. It’s, after all, very resistant to the kind of moralizing such books sometimes like to do. In fact, even adult readers may have to dig pretty deeply to find anything edifying in this text….
Psalm 70
Proper 27A
Psalm 70 is the alternate Lectionary reading from the Psalter for today. I’ve chosen it because I wrote on the regular reading, Psalm 78, barely a month ago. And it turns out that there’s a lot to ponder and perhaps preach in this apparently simple little Psalm. It is given scant attention in many commentaries…
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