A couple of weeks ago as I was packing up my office in the call I was leaving a member of that church said, “Would you be willing to reuse a sermon?” Me in my head: Oh yes! Apparently you haven’t noticed I’ve done it here! Me out loud: If the circumstance is right. She continued,… Read More
Narrative Lectionary: If at first you don’t succeed (Mark 6:1-29)
I remember Mr. Straehla, our elementary school principal, coming into the classroom one day in third grade to teach us this idiom: If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. His definition has stayed with me. And it came to mind immediately, first, when I was reading this Sunday’s lesson (Mark 6: 1-29), and then… Read More
Friday Five: Getting Ready to Go
Here in the Northern Hemisphere summer is upon us which for many means a season of more going and coming. As I child when my family was planning for vacation we knew we were getting close when my mom stopped by the bookstore to buy the Frommer’s and Fodor’s guides for our destination. It was… Read More
Narrative Lectionary – Come, See, Go, Tell (Matthew 28:1-10)
OK. Ready or not, here comes Easter! In some ways it seems like this should be easy. Resurrection, good news, life over death, this is what we’re all about. But it some ways it can also seem like the hardest week of the year. It’s the culmination of multiple services for many of us. The… Read More
Tuesday Lectionary Leanings – Like it or not (Matthew 2:13-23)
You can find the text here. The commentary from the Working Preacher site is here. I remember a chapel service in seminary for which the student preacher had picked a troublesome text. Whether it was a particularly convicting text or one that contained horrific violence, I remember my spontaneous response to the traditional “This is… Read More
Poor, Poor Joseph
Genesis 39:1-23 Working Preacher Commentary I Love to Tell the Story podcast I have a problem. I can’t read any story in the Joseph cycle without singing the entire soundtrack of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. It also doesn’t help that it’s actually playing on my son’s CD player as I type this; he listens… Read More
Love, Love, Love – Narrative Lectionary for August 3, 2014
The text for Narrative Lectionary preachers following the summer schedule of readings this coming week is 1 John 4:7-21. This is the last reading of the suggested four week series centering on 1 John. The topic at hand is love. I am writing this post from Buena Vista University in Storm Lake, Iowa where I… Read More
We’ve only just begun – Pentecost in the Narrative Lectionary
Acts 2:1-21 This Sunday is the last Sunday in the Narrative Lectionary year. Most of us who have been following the NL have been with it since September, and we have covered a lot of territory in the last nine months. It began, of course, with the poetic words of creation, and we wrap it up with the… Read More
A change of context – John 19:1-16
I don’t know about the rest of you, but I have appreciated reading and preaching these “Holy Week” texts at time other than Holy Week. I knew this winter (and I’m still calling it winter as long as there is still snow in my forecast this week) would be hard because I have never been a… Read More
Come and See (John 1:35-51)
John 1:35-51 Like in the synoptics, one of the earliest activities of Jesus in John’s gospel is the gathering of disciples. I say “gathering” rather than “calling” because the action is decidedly different as John tells the story. At least in the instance of the first two disciples, Andrew and Simon Peter, Jesus doesn’t go… Read More
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