Revised Common Lectionary: Carb Overload

This week’s Revised Common Lectionary Gospel lesson is the fifth, and blessedly final, installment of the Bread of Life series. Next week we return to Mark, where there are still conversations about food, but in a totally different context. No matter how much you love John, or bread, if you’ve preached on the Bread of… Read More

The Pastoral is Political: The Political Can Be Yeast

Many aspects of pastoral ministry are oriented in justice-seeking, in hope-phoenixing, in the hand-over-sweaty-hand work of healing the world. The gift from my ordination thirty-seven years ago I’ve kept longest is a folded piece of paper containing Marge Piercy’s poem, “To be of Use.” which says, among other wonderful things — “I love people …who… Read More

11th Hour Preacher’s Party: The Wisdom (or, uhm, not??) of Kings, Prophets, and Bread

    After years of storing our home baked communion bread in the freezer of the church kitchen, we had two Sunday’s this summer where we discovered the communion bread was gone. All of it. 9 loaves, twice. Taken, I imagine, by a homeless person who wandered in to the kitchen, which is also the… Read More

RevGalBookPals: Forgotten Books of the Bible

The Forgotten Books of the Bible is a new study of the Five Scrolls—each of which has a central place in synagogue life, being assigned to the major festivals of the Jewish year, but which are largely overlooked in many Christian settings. They don’t appear often in lectionaries, and while they are sometimes included in… Read More