It’s Rally Day or Welcome Back Sunday or Where the Heck Have you Been All Summer Sunday and everyone is excited to kick off the new church year. A fun hymn is sung, the Sunday school teachers are commissioned, and then with great anticipation the first reading is begun: The Lord saw that wickedness of… Read More
Saturday Prayer: In your mercy, Lord…
In your mercy Lord, hear our prayer… We pray for hearts that see the world only as “us” versus “them”. We pray for minds that are closed to new ideas and ways of your grace. We pray for hands that are clenched tight with the rallying cry of “mine”, forgetting that everything is yours. We… Read More
Friday Prayer: Put away your sword
Jesus told Peter, “Put away your sword.” Who will tell us to put away our guns? And will we ever listen? Lord, in your mercy…
Narrative Lectionary: Wait for it (Habbakuk 1:1-4, 2:2-4, 3:17-19)
Narrative Lectionary preachers, welcome to another Advent season without John the Baptist! Here is the Habakkuk selection for Advent 1: NRSV CEB Habakkuk Basics[1] 8th book of the 12 minor prophets Only thing known about Habakkuk is that he is identified as a prophet in 1:1 and 3:1 Single subject: If God is the upholder… Read More
Narrative Lectionary: Mine! Mine! Mine! Edition (Exodus 20:17)
So if you’ve stuck with it, this is week 4 of the ten commandments (NRSV, CEB). Week. 4. I haven’t exactly been honing in on the assigned text each work preferring to spend a lot of time on the connections between these verses and the greatest commandments mentioned later by Jesus. Tablet 1, vertical love:… Read More
Narrative Lectionary: ‘No Doubt About It’ Edition (John 20:19-31)
One of the great things about being in the Narrative Lectionary is that we don’t always get the same ol’ lectionary readings that we get year after year. I, for one, did not miss John the Baptist this past Advent. I also didn’t miss the usual Transfiguration stories. And I was really looking forward to… Read More
Narrative Lectionary: Palms or Passion Edition (John 12:12-17; 19:16b-22)
What do we do when the lectionary transforms Palm Sunday into Good Friday? Depending on your setting, you may have some options. For instance, we do Maundy Thursday and Good Friday services but the liturgy and Scripture for the latter is already set (aka: sacred cow). Maundy Thursday is flexible so I could use any… Read More
Narrative Lectionary: “already he stinketh” (John 11:1-44)
NRSV CEB Rarely do I rely on the King James Version for the best translation, but when it comes to Lazarus in the tomb for four days it’s hard to beat Martha’s caution… “already he stinketh.” This story has plenty of landing places for the preacher, which as we all know can make it… Read More
Narrative Lectionary: Abundant Healing Edition
There are many times I enjoy a choice… lectionary selection is not one of them. And yet, under the generous heading of ‘Healing Stories,’ the Narrative Lectionary and the good folks at Working Preacher give us two: John 4:46-54 (NRSV, CEB) and John 5:1-18 (NRSV, CEB). The passage from John 4 has parallels to a story… Read More
Ask The Matriarch: Inquire Within!
Hi friends! Martha is hopefully travelling today from the icy south to the Hoth north and remains sans laptop so… here is the plea from me: The Ask The Matriarch queue is empty. Do you have a ministry question that you’d like to run past women clergy who have been doing this clergy gig for ten… Read More
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