Psalm 80:1-7
Advent 4C
[…] psalm. It is filled with dark and bitter imagery. It is written from the depths of sorrow. All in all, in short, this does not feel terribly Christmas-like. Yet in 2018 this is the Psalm assigned for a scant 2 days before Christmas Day. Probably most preachers will opt for the alternative reading of […]
Mark 13:24-37
Advent 1B
[…] in Advent directs us to the Olivet Discourse and Jesus’ words about the end of the world, it can be a stretch to do the seemingly UN- Christmas-like thing of pointing to the end of the world. Long about the time most people are switching all of their Christmas lights on to celebrate the […]
John 1:(1-9), 10-18
Christmas 2B
[…] has been staggeringly enough at all time highs. Maybe then this year the Lectionary text from John 1 that often gets assigned for the Second Sunday after Christmas is particularly apt and maybe in its own way hopeful. Because a lot of the time this past year we maybe had a hard time discerning […]
Psalm 147:12-20
Christmas 2B
[…] a poem like this given the historical and spiritual realities we know only too well? This Psalm seems to be a favorite for the Second Sunday after Christmas as it was assigned for the first Sunday in January in the Year A Lectionary too, which last year was January 5, 2020. A year ago, […]
Jeremiah 33:14-16
Advent 1C
[…] things, nevertheless proclaim words of hope. But then, aren’t those precisely the situations where one needs to find hope? As we begin to celebrate Advent and then Christmas once again, we know full well that not all the forced Christmas “cheer” in the world can cover up or finally compensate for the gloominess and […]
Psalm 80:1-7
Advent 4C
[…] psalm. It is filled with dark and bitter imagery. It is written from the depths of sorrow. All in all, in short, this does not feel terribly Christmas-like. Probably most preachers will opt for the alternative reading of Mary’s “Magnificat” (see above for the link to a commentary on that). But when you think […]
Psalm 47
Easter 7B
[…] over? No, ours is a world of hatred and strife, of children shooting children on playgrounds, of cancer and leukemia, of homegrown terrorists shooting up campuses and Christmas parties. It doesn’t look like a world ruled by a good Lord. How then can we claim the truth of Ascension Day–the truth that Jesus is […]
Isaiah 40:1-11
Advent 2B
[…] those of us who look at it without batting an eye. The Second Sunday in Advent brings us to another location that is at least as un- Christmasy as the First Sunday in Advent’s consideration of the day when all the cosmic lights will wink out as the Son of God prepares to return […]
Micah 5:2-5a
Advent 4C
[…] the sanctuary or in order to understand the messages that we preach. Few times of the year tempt us more in that direction, however, than Advent and Christmas. I suspect that I need not detail the reasons why. But it’s a temptation to resist at this time above all times. If Christ cannot be […]
Mark 1:1-8
Advent 2B
[…] on, Mark, go back, get back to angels and shepherds and stars and stables and mangers and all that good stuff. This is Advent not Epiphany. It’s Christmas, for pete’s sake, and the last place we want to be in December is in the middle of some dry, dusty wilderness where someone is screaming […]
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