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Isaiah 6:1-8
Trinity Sunday B
Comments, Observations, and Questions It was the year King Uzziah died. Or, it was the year President Kennedy died. Or it was the year 9/11 rattled the world to its core. It was the year when things fell apart, when foundations were shaken, when the markets crumbled, when all that had once been familiar now…
Psalm 104:24-34, 35b
Pentecost B
Comments, Observations, and Questions to Consider Psalm 104 is a lovely, lyrical hymn of praise to God the Creator and Sustainer. It offers what William P. Brown calls “a grand tour of God’s creation and maintenance of the cosmos.” It glides from verses 2b-9’s description of God’s first acts of creation to verses’ 10-30’s description…
Psalm 1
Easter 7B
Comments, Observations, and Questions to Consider Psalm 1, in combination with Psalm 2, introduces the entire Psalter that is the book of Psalms. James May suggests that the combination of those psalms invites hearers to read and use the entire psalm book as God’s guide to a what constitutes a “blessed” or “happy life.” Some…
Psalm 98
Easter 6B
Comments, Observations, and Questions to Consider Psalm 98 is a stirring call to joyfully (and boisterously!) celebrate God’s reign over all creation. It’s very similar to Psalm 96. After all, both invite the listening congregation to sing a new song and each ends with God’s righteous judgment being a reason for jubilant singing. Each psalm…
Psalm 22:25-31
Easter 5B
Comments, Observations, and Questions to Consider Psalm 22 is poignant prayer of lament of a persecuted child of God. It begins with the anguished cry, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Yet throughout much of the psalm, the psalmist prays as though she’s not entirely certain that God is even listening to…
Psalm 23
Easter 4B
Comments and Observations Psalm 23 is so familiar, so ingrained in historic American culture that those who preach and teach may feel intimidated by it. After all, it’s the psalm that characters as diverse as Katherine Hepburn in Rooster Cogburn and the hip-hop artist Coolio in “Gangsta’s Paradise” utilize. Pastors and others have also probably…
Psalm 4
Easter 3B
Comments, Observations, and Questions to Consider We’ve all said, if not shouted it in one form or another: “Help!” It’s the cry of someone who’s in the kind of distress that plagues Psalm 4’s author. While all sorts of distress may prompt such a call, in this psalm’s case it’s lies and falsehood. Some scholars…
Psalm 133
Easter 2B
Comments, Observations, and Questions to Consider Psalm 133 is a song that at first glance appears to applaud familial unity. After all, it uses familial language when it speaks of the wonder and beauty of “brotherly” unity. In fact, some scholars suggest this lends credence to the idea that families sang Psalm 133 on their…
Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24
Easter 1B
Comments and Observations Since this is the psalm the Lectionary appoints for Easter, it’s very tempting to view it simply through the lens of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead. After all, it’s not hard to imagine Jesus saying, “I will not die but live, and will proclaim what the Lord has done for me. The…
Isaiah 25:6-9
Easter 1B
C.S. Lewis famously claimed that the deepest longings of the human heart are hints and echoes of the same things God desires for us. Just as a fish washed up on a beach longs to be back in the water (because that is its natural element), so also if we find ourselves pining for something,…
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