Narrative Lectionary: Beginnings (Genesis 1:1-2:4a)

“September is another January,” writer Gretchen Rubin says often, conveying the feeling of a new start in September.  In the U.S., where I live, school is starting, and students, aides and teachers are back to in-person learning in many places.  This year, the beginning also feels dangerous, with COVID still hovering.  Churches shift to fuller… Read More

11th Hour Preacher Party Sept. 5, 2021 Lectionary 23/Proper 18/15th Sunday after Pentecost

Rev Gals and Pals, School is back in session in my part of the world and I imagine the young people I know gladly said goodbye to summer vacation this morning as they boarded the bus more than ready to get back in the classroom with their friends; today, as these children were held in… Read More

Narrative Lectionary: Six Weeks of Summer in the Psalms

The Narrative Lectionary runs each year from September to Pentecost which means that the summer break can be spent preaching on other things. One option this year is to spend 6 weeks in the Book of Psalms. We don’t often preach the psalms, usually preferring to sing them instead. In my tradition, we sing many… Read More

Narrative Lectionary: “One in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:1-9, 23-29)

Galatians 3:1-9, 23-29 Those of us using the Narrative Lectionary get to preach from Galatians yet again this week! With the Revised Common Lectionary, you can always choose the Gospel reading, or the Hebrew Scripture, or even the Psalm when passages like this show up. But with our beloved NL, there’s nowhere else to turn.… Read More

Narrative Lectionary: Do This, Not That (Galatians 1:13-17; 2:11-21)

The church I serve is full of delightful people with a love for the world, and they find great solace in policies. Binders. Manuals. Rules. What makes me itch makes them feel secure. Looking back two thousand years, I can imagine that the churches in Galatia, once Paul left them, wanted the security of a… Read More

Narrative Lectionary: O joy! A meeting! (Acts 15:1-18)

I must say that my first reaction to the inclusion of this reading in the Narrative Lectionary was one of doubt and trepidation. Would Sunday’s sermon turn out to be little more than an intellectual exercise lacking any application to the life and faith of my congregation? However, thanks be to God, some thoughts are… Read More

Narrative Lectionary: Dinner Time (Luke 24:13-35)

One of the many things I love about being an aunt is seeing how my brothers reappear in their kids.  A certain laugh, or a way of thinking, or the rebellious choices my nephews and niece make all evoke my brothers in earlier stages of life.  I find my parents in their physical gestures, too,… Read More