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Song of Solomon 2:8-13
Proper 17B
This is first and only time the Song of Songs appears in the Revised Common Lectionary, and it is an odd time. I mean that the reading clearly refers to the first days of spring, while we are in the last days of summer. What can we do with this oddly timed and controversial reading?…
Psalm 84
Proper 16B
Did Joseph, Mary, and Jesus sing this psalm on their way to Jerusalem that year when Jesus turned 12? Psalm 84 is a Song of Ascent, a pilgrimage song. Like most such psalms it was meant to bolster the determination and the energy and the enthusiasm for Jerusalem-bound travelers heading to the Holy City for…
1 Kings 8:(1-6, 10-11), 22-30, 41-43
Proper 16B
This is one of the great pivotal chapters in the Bible. It recalls an event that was to Israel much like the Fourth of July is to Americans. It marks the end of a long struggle for freedom and security. At last Israel had complete ownership of the Promised Land and there is peace, both…
Psalm 111
Proper 15B
We almost certainly do not study the works of the Lord enough. Psalm 111 is not one of the better known poems in the Hebrew Psalter but it packs a powerful punch of praise and adoration. Just generally it is a meditation on God’s works in both creation and redemption. It celebrates the mighty things…
1 Kings 2:10-12, 3:3-14
Proper 15B
In preaching on this story or any part of the narrative literature of the Old Testament, it is absolutely crucial to remember what we are dealing with here. This is not modern historiography, in which economic, political, or military factors play the major role in explaining the course of human events, although, of course, plenty…
Psalm 130
Proper 14B
One of the strangest books I’ve ever read is The Trial/Das Urteil by the German author Franz Kafka. The book’s opening line starkly says, “Someone must have slandered Josef K. because even though he had done nothing bad, one morning he was suddenly arrested.” The police show up at his apartment before breakfast one day…
2 Samuel 18:5-9, 15, 31-33
Proper 14B
In the long story of God’s covenant relationship with his beloved but rebellious child Israel, the story of David and his beloved but rebellious child, Absalom, occupies 6 long and painful chapters. It is one of the most gripping and heart wrenching stories in all of literature. Indeed, it has been the inspiration for some…
Psalm 51:1-12
Proper 13B
Years ago a British psychologist who worked inside Britain’s penal system described the startlingly loopy ways by which criminals attempt to sneak out from under their own crimes. He opened his article by reminding readers that in his pseudo-suicide note years ago, O.J. Simpson had the audacity to write, “Sometimes I feel like a battered…
2 Samuel 11:26-12:13a
Proper 13B
The world is full of people who seem to get away with murder, and theft, and adultery, and lying, and abuse, and rape. Oh, every once in a while someone gets caught and punished, like the Golden State Killer. But for everyone who gets caught, how many aren’t? It sure seems as though you can…
Psalm 14
Proper 12B
Psalm 14 is not my favorite Psalm; I’ve never preached on it. And it is not a Psalm that occurs over and over in the RCL like Psalm 23. It is easy to see why. It is about as politically incorrect as anything in the Bible. It’s not the sweet political incorrectness of the Gospel,…
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