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Psalm 15
Epiphany 4A
Psalm 15 opens with a question that will trouble a lot of people in many congregations. It’s a question put to God. Now, questioning God is not a problem for most Christians these days. In fact, it’s much in vogue. Folks like David Dark speak eloquently about the necessity of asking questions if our faith…
Micah 6:1-8
Epiphany 4A
What do you give to the person who already has everything? It’s not just a question for Christmas, birthday or other gift giving. It’s also, in some ways at the heart of the Old Testament lesson the Lectionary appoints for this Sunday: What do you give to the One who already owns everything? Micah 6:4-5…
Psalm 27:1, 4-9
Epiphany 3A
It was Emily Dickinson who clearly enunciated one of the great principles of effective preaching: “Tell the truth, but tell it slant.” Most everyone who hears your sermons already knows the truth. Thus, you’ll have to find a new way to tell it so they will listen to the “old, old story.” No, I didn’t…
Isaiah 9:1-4
Epiphany 3A
In the northern hemisphere this time of year is characterized, in part, by darkness. While daylight is already beginning to push that darkness farther and farther back, people sometimes think of January as one of the darkest and, as a result, bleakest seasons of the year. That’s part of what makes Isaiah 9 an appropriate…
Psalm 40:1-11
Epiphany 2A
“The correct ‘voice’ for Psalm 40 is not in doubt,” says Patrick Henry Reardon in his Christ in the Psalms. “We know from Hebrews 10 that these are words springing from the heart of Christ our Lord and have reference to the sacrificial obedience of his Passion and death.” That may be ultimately true and…
Isaiah 49:1-7
Epiphany 2A
“I have labored to no purpose; I have spent my strength in vain and for nothing” (Isaiah 49:3) might be a motto of more than a few of the pastors and teachers I know. Even on a Sunday so close to the start of a new year, some of us wrestle with the kind of…
Psalm 29
Epiphany 1A
Anyone who regularly preaches on the Lectionary knows all too well that the there are times when the choice of readings doesn’t make sense. That is not the case for this First Sunday after Epiphany when we celebrate the Baptism of Jesus. The “main” reading from the Gospels is, of course, about the baptism of…
Isaiah 42:1-9
Epiphany 1A
Christians are sometimes prone to hurdle the Old Testament’s original context in order to sprint to the finish line that is the Jesus to whom it points. We always want, after all, to preach and teach Christ and him crucified. So preachers and teachers sometimes treat texts like Isaiah 42 as little more than an…
Psalm 8
1st Sunday after Christmas A
I was meditating on the words of verse 4, “what is man that you are mindful of him,” when I saw her picture—a lovely blond, her eyes closed in obvious contentment, a blissful smile on her lips, the perfect picture of serenity. She was on the cover of Time magazine with this headline next to…
Ecclesiastes 3:1-13
1st Sunday after Christmas A
Does anyone know what time it is? The rock group Chicago sang a song entitled, “Does Anybody Know What Time It Is?” It’s about people who have watches but don’t really know what time it is: “People running around everywhere, Don’t know what way to go … Don’t know where I am. Have no time…
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