Today we receive an incredible challenge: Jesus laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for one another (1 John 3:16). Christ gave his life for us as a shepherd would lay down his life for his sheep (John 10:11). How often have we ever truly been called upon… Read More
Revised Common Lectionary: Brave Thomas
Here we are, back to one of the most preached texts, ever. And Thomas is here again, poking at our assumptions and asking all of the questions. In my mind Thomas is not “Doubting Thomas” but “Brave Thomas.” The first time Thomas speaks is in John 11, when Jesus’s close friend Lazarus has died. The… Read More
RCL: Easter-A Feast for ALL People
Christ is risen! Alleluia! I hope these words ring joyously true wherever you are this Easter. They may not. You and your community may still be caught in the grief and limitations of pandemic. You may be weary after over a year of trying to lead a community in a physically distanced world. These factors… Read More
RCL Commentary: Palm Sunday 2021: Living on Borrowed Time, Colts, and Promises
Mark 11:1-11 John 12:12-16 Approaching Jerusalem, Jesus paused. It had been another unsettling week for the disciples – a week full of parables they struggled to understand, an unexpected lunch with a tax collector, and a morbid take on this trip to Jerusalem. But seeing the city in the distance and knowing that ahead lay… Read More
Revised Common Lectionary: A New Hope
UPDATE: After this column was posted, another mass murder/hate crime took place in the USA. How are you addressing this violence against people of Asian descent in your worshipping communities? Perhaps this Sunday it would be appropriate to include an extended litany of lament and confession, based on Psalm 51. ADDITIONALLY: this week, leadership at… Read More
RCL – 4th Sunday in Lent
Numbers 21:4-9, Ephesians 2:1-10, John 3:14-21 A long time ago, on a hot summer day, I was painting a small bench in my front yard. As I reached for the garden hose to rinse paint off my hands another similar “hose” moved on the ground. It was a gigantic snake. My husband still laughs at… Read More
RCL Lent 2, February 28, 2021
Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16 Romans 4:13-25 Mark 8:31-38 Now that we’ve officially launched Lent 2021 and the big joke is that people think they never left Lent 2020, it’s the perfect opportunity to remember that somebody’s always in Lent, pandemic or no pandemic. Yes, every day of every year people face their mortality, great losses, fears,… Read More
Revised Common Lectionary: First (or 52nd) Sunday in Lent.
Welcome to Lent. Welcome back to Lent. Welcome to the longest Lent-ish season that many of us have experienced! For most preachers and faith communities around the world, a lockdown in response to the global pandemic occurred sometime during Lent last year. For some of us, it feels as though Lent never ended in 2020.… Read More
RCL – Tearing the Veil
2 Kings 2:1-12, 2 Corinthians 4:3-6, Mark 9:2-9 It seems strange to realize that, for those of us in the U.S., we are rapidly approaching one year since the world was normal. I still remember my “last” Sunday, though of course I didn’t know it at the time. That is where we meet our people:… Read More
RCL: Healing
I don’t know about you, but when I read Mark 1:29-39 I immediately think of the multitudes of demons in my life, that I want Jesus to heal. Do you believe demons are real? Mark invites some real contemplation about where you stand on demons. Are they mental illness or bodily infections or disabilities or… Read More
