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Isaiah 52:7-10
Christmas Day A
I’ve seen the feet of a few preachers and teachers who proclaim the gospel’s “good news.” Some are big, others are fairly small. Some are quite flat. Preachers and teachers’ feet can even be pretty smelly. But I’m not sure even their closest family members and friends would call them “beautiful.” Yet no one who…
Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19
Advent 4A
On this Fourth Sunday of Advent, just a week away from Christmas, it is easy to imagine those shepherds already in the fields keeping watch over their sheep, completely unaware of what is going to happen to them in just a few days. But we can’t go there yet. It is not Christmas yet; it’s…
Isaiah 7:10-16
Advent 4A
Human life is full of signs. A number painted on metal rectangle indicates the legal speed limit on a road or highway. Twin golden arches are a sign of the culinary paradise that awaits you at the next exit. Yet once you leave a highway, you find even more signs: A figure with pants on…
Isaiah 35:1-10
Advent 3A
With the words, “This text shouldn’t be here,” my colleague Barbara Lundblad begins a thoughtful presentation on Isaiah 35. After all, as she points out, it’s not just that this text doesn’t address anyone by name. It’s also that it almost immediately follows a poem that’s full of images of creational disaster: “Edom’s streams will…
Psalm 72:1-7, 18-19
Advent 2A
I have given invocations at many events over the years—civic dinners with important speakers, the dedication of public and private buildings, the launching of significant social justice initiatives, even the inauguration of a local judge. But I’ve never given the invocation at the swearing in of a President. That is essentially what we have in…
Isaiah 11:1-10
Advent 2A
Some people claim the theologian Karl Barth said that modern Christians should always have an open Bible in one hand and the daily newspaper in the other. It’s advice that remains as good today as when Barth first offered it. So those who preach and teach this Sunday’s Old Testament text the Lectionary appoints might…
Psalm 122
Advent 1A
When I began to study Psalm 122, I thought it was one of those homiletically barren texts from which any smart preacher should run as fast as she can. It seemed utterly unfit for this first Sunday of Advent. However, having plowed it now for some time, I’m not so sure my first impressions were…
Isaiah 2:1-5
Advent 1A
How can we experience peace in a world that’s so desperately short on it? It’s a question both as ancient as our first parents’ fall into sin and as modern as ongoing war in places like parts of the Middle East. Some people assumed that we’d finally figure out how to have peace during the…
Psalm 46
Proper 29C
These are auspicious days in my country. We’re less than two weeks downwind from our elections and we know now who our next President will be and what our new Congress will look like. During this coming week, we will pause as a nation to give thanks for the blessings we have received from God,…
Jeremiah 23:1-6
Proper 29C
Because Jeremiah 23 is about leadership, Americans may not have to squint very hard to see parallels between it and their current political situation. Having survived a bruising presidential campaign, they (as well as citizens of all nations) may even be ready to hear the gospel that God embeds in this text. Jeremiah 23 begins…
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