Content related to Old Testament

Home » Old Testament » Page 88

Jeremiah 18:1-11

Proper 18C

Almost all students work with at least a little clay while they’re in school. Relatively few of us, however, resemble the sophisticated potters of Jeremiah’s day. Some scholars, after all, compare their clay to today’s steel. Potters who were Jeremiah’s contemporaries made things like bricks, lamps and toys, as well as cooking pots and even…

Read More

Psalm 112

Proper 17C

Psalm 112 is one gorgeous piece of poetry about happiness. But there’s one simple problem with it: It just ain’t so. What it says about the happiness of those who fear the Lord doesn’t seem to be true, not for all of us, not all the time, and for some, not at all. At least…

Read More

Jeremiah 2:4-13

Proper 17C

Diseases that sap memory, like Alzheimer’s or other forms of dementia, deeply frighten some people. After all, memory connects us to those we love and even in a way to ourselves. Without memory, we largely become alone in the world. Without memory, in many ways we no longer feel like we belong anywhere. Memory, however,…

Read More

Psalm 103:1-8

Proper 16C

In the dog days of August, in the heart of Ordinary Time, Psalm 103 is an immensely helpful self-initiated reminder not to forget all that God does for us, which is, simply, everything. That’s probably why my teachers back at Denver Christian Elementary School made me memorize these very verses at the ripe old age…

Read More

Jeremiah 1:4-10

Proper 16C

God doesn’t try to keep God’s truth to himself. God doesn’t make God’s adopted sons and daughters try to guess what God is thinking. God likes to speak. However, many of God’s experiences with speaking directly to people haven’t turned out very well. The people at Sinai, for example, just couldn’t handle it. So when…

Read More

Psalm 82

Proper 15C

Psalm 82 is a most unusual Psalm for at least two reasons. First, it is not a Psalm of praise or thanksgiving or penitence or confession or lament or imprecation or coronation. Unlike most Psalms, it is not addressed to God in any of those ways, except in the very last verse. Rather, it is…

Read More

Isaiah 5:1-7

Proper 15C

Isaiah 5 begins with what looks like a light-hearted romantic ballad. A kind of troubadour opens this chapter by saying, “Listen up! I’m going to sing you a ballad about my beloved one–a song about the vineyard of our love!” It reminds me of the Paul McCartney song that claims the world will never have…

Read More

Psalm 33:12-22

Proper 14C

Our Psalm reading for today is the second half of a Psalm of praise to Yahweh. It is focused on the sovereignty of the God of Israel. It is one of the first Psalms of praise in the Psalter and one of only a few such Psalms in the first book of the Psalter, which…

Read More

Isaiah 1:1, 10-20

Proper 14C

As this is being written, grim news fills our media. Terrorist attacks. Police shootings. Ambushes of police officers. Civil wars and attempted coups. They remind us that while the text the Lectionary appoints for this Sunday may be nearly 3,000 years old, both its context and the sins it describes are nearly as contemporary as…

Read More

Psalm 49:1-12

Proper 13C

The opportunity to preach on Psalm 49 comes at a particularly appropriate time in American history. The whole issue of income inequality has troubled our society for quite a while now, but it has become a hot button topic in the campaign for President. One of the candidates is a non-political figure who claimed very…

Read More