Acts 16:16-34
Easter 7C
[…] had earlier inflicted on Paul and Silas. Then the apostles turn right around and gently bathe his family and him in God’s healing baptismal waters. (During the Easter season, the Lectionary appoints texts from Acts as Old Testament lessons.) Illustration Idea In his book, Wishful Thinking, Frederick Buechner winsomely writes, “After centuries of handling […]
Acts 11:1-18
Easter 5C
[…] us. To whom we imitate God in Christ by showing hospitality says something about how we see both people and the God who creates them. (During the Easter season, the Lectionary appoints texts from Acts as Old Testament lessons). Illustration Idea A few years ago I participated in a theological dialogue with leaders of […]
Acts 1:6-14
Easter 7A
[…] had watched, from a distance, Jesus suffer and die. They were also among those to whom Jesus appeared after he rose from the dead on the first Easter. After all, after “suffering,” Jesus “showed himself to these men and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive.” However, just as his disciples get used […]
Acts 2:14a, 36-41
Easter 3A
[…] years later, the Spirit is still transforming people, including preachers and teachers, and adding them to the disciples’ original number. As we read about them in this Easter season, all of the first Pentecost’s remarkable transformations (and more) point to the amazing difference Jesus’ resurrection from the dead makes. It shows how Jesus shares […]
1 Corinthians 15:1-11
Easter Day B
[…] after all, know Jesus personally. Paul wasn’t one of Jesus’ twelve disciples. He didn’t experience the confusion that the risen Christ turned to joy on the first Easter. The Holy Spirit didn’t descend on and fill the apostle on the first Pentecost. In fact, Paul initially actually persecuted the Church. He witnessed and, in […]
John 17:1-11
Easter 7A
[…] the same physical presence that Jesus had while he was on earth. But they are not alone. Along with the other recent promise we’ve heard in this Easter season that the disciples will not be left orphans because Jesus and the Father are giving the Holy Spirit to them, Jesus prays that the Father’s […]
John 14:1-14
Easter 5A
[…] belief is meant to lead to doing something: seeking God’s face and will, doing and acting on the wisdom we receive from God. It’s the gift of Easter power given to all of Jesus’s disciples and it is wildly more infinite than what we can whittle it down to and make manageable. Thank God […]
John 10:1-10
Easter 4A
[…] (chapter 9) with Jesus’s “I am” proclamation here at the beginning of chapter 10 by a number of weeks—the first being in Lent and now here in Easter. A quick review of the man’s experience of being kicked out of the synagogue makes it pretty obvious how we are meant to understand the difference […]
Psalm 23
Easter 4A
[…] a slain lamb. Jesus is the One who stays with us in death’s chill shadows because he himself passed through death to emerge in the light of Easter on the other side. What happened to Jesus the Good Shepherd and slain lamb is not simple. How and why salvation could have been achieved through […]
Psalm 116:1-4, 12-19
Easter 3A
[…] everyone who believes God has wrought salvation for them. And in this Eastertide Season, this is a fitting prompt for us to recall that Christ’s victory on Easter morning was not just so that I could have my individual salvation worked for me or that now Jesus is “my personal Savior” as though that […]
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