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Psalm 22:19-28
Proper 7C
Ordinary Time is just beginning yet the Lectionary directs us to a sometimes difficult psalm. Yes, we are being asked to consider only the hope-filled, praise-filled conclusion to this poem but it’s not as though we can forget its terrible opening set of verses. “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” brings us…
Psalm 22:25-31
Easter 5B
Let’s try a little thought experiment: imagine running across a long-ish narrative poem that began with something like, “The one I love torments me day and night, insults me in private and in public. She has made me out to be a villain, and I rue the day I ever met her at times. Who…
Psalm 22:23-31
Lent 2B
In this week’s Gospel sermon article here on the CEP website I noted the dramatic experience of Peter in Mark 8 when he falls about as far as a person can fall within the span of minutes. Peter goes from being blessed to the heavens by Jesus to being cursed to the depths of hell…
Psalm 22:19-28
Proper 7C
Ordinary Time is just beginning in the early summertime of 2019 yet the Lectionary directs us to a sometimes difficult psalm. Yes, we are being asked to consider only the hope-filled, praise-filled conclusion to this poem but it’s not as though we can forget its terrible opening set of verses. “My God, my God, why…
Psalm 22:1-15
Proper 23B
It seems odd that Psalm 22 should crop up in the lectionary at this time of year. We tend to associate it with Lent and Holy Week, not the middle of autumn. Lots of you will probably turn to another of the lections for your text for that reason alone. But hold it. Psalm 22…
Psalm 22:25-31
Easter 5B
The Lectionary can be a hard taskmaster, especially when it assigns the same reading twice in two months during entirely different seasons of the liturgical year. That is the case with this reading from the last verses of Psalm 22. It was our assignment two months ago during Lent and is now our reading for…
Psalm 22:23-31
Lent 2B
Psalm 22 is the quintessential Lenten Psalm. Most obviously, Jesus quoted verse 1 on the cross and many scholars think that he quoted the rest of the Psalm throughout that dark time of God-forsakenness. Certainly, the Psalm has lines that perfectly fit other moments of his crucifixion. And the first Christians used this Psalm more…
Psalm 22:19-28
Proper 7C
I can easily imagine a 21st century psychologist reading this Psalm for the first time and calling it “The Bi-Polar Psalm,” because of its sudden wild swings of mood. The Psalmist seems to have two totally different minds here. Are these the words of a person driven to mental instability by the clash between his…
Psalm 22:1-15
Proper 23B
Comments, Observations, and Questions to Consider Psalm 22 is a psalm of lament that expresses the poet’s anguish at his enemies’ relentless and ferocious attacks on him. It contains the kind of honesty with God that 21st century Christians seem sometimes reluctant to express. So how does such a lament fit into the season of…
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…
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