Last night, as I was driving home after a church council meeting, the threatening-looking clouds finally opened up. I spent the last few miles of my drive in heavy rains with thunder and lightning. I wasn’t afraid of perishing, as the disciples in the Gospel for Sunday, but I certainly had renewed appreciation for the… Read More
Revised Common Lectionary: Parables
With what shall we compare the realm of God? It is like a dream that is out-of-season and planted for another day. Hidden away it germinates & wonders, roots & grows, until one day it erupts from its hiding place to bloom and be harvested. (Mark 4:26-29) With what shall we compare kin-dom of God?… Read More
RCL: Outcasts & Casting Out
I find the juxtaposition between Mark 3: 20-35 and Genesis 3:8-15 very rich this week. Here we have Jesus’s family coming to cast out his demons, and Adam and Eve are about to be Cast Out of the Garden of Eden. I can’t help but think of Pride month, when Jesus is going to be… Read More
Revised Common Lectionary: Bending Toward Mercy
If you’re a Revised Common Lectionary preacher, this is the first Sunday of the church year when you can choose between a First Reading designed to echo the theme of the Gospel and a First Reading designed to provide a semi-continuous path through portions of the Old Testament. First Reading (Complementary) – Deuteronomy 5:6-21 –… Read More
RCL: The Joys of Trinity Sunday
Every year when Trinity Sunday comes around, I find myself thinking about the first children’s sermon I ever gave. It was nearly 30 years ago when I was a field ed student during my first year of seminary. Long before I knew the impossibilities of theological math, I thought I had the perfect object lesson.… Read More
The Pastoral is Political: Robbed of Full Humanity
Note: many of the articles linked to this article contain profanity, slurs, and triggers. In 1915, my grandfather was driven from his homeland and sentenced to die at the age of six. His crime was being born an Armenian in Turkey. American Ambassador Henry Morganthau, Sr. asked Talaat Pasha, lead architect of the Armenian Genocide,… Read More
Revised Common Lectionary: Pentecost!
Welcome to the end of the season of Easter, and one of the only days in the church year that celebrates the work of the Holy Spirit! (Do you know where your red stole is?) RCL texts for this Sunday can be found here, and links to additional resources are available on The Text This… Read More
Revised Common Lectionary: On Earth as in Heaven
Jesus prayed: “Once in heaven I will no longer be in the world, but my friends remain in the world. I have been your word on earth; now I give them your word and the world will not welcome your word in them any more than it did in me.” (John 17:11-14, adapted) On earth… Read More
RCL: You are My I Love You
When I read John 15:9-17 I find myself reading it in many different tones. So far, my favorite is to read it in is exasperation. You the super-exasperated “I love you” that is sometimes the best you have to give one another. Its a favorite of my husband and I’s, we will be completely be… Read More
RCL: The Challenge to Love
I’m having some difficulties with these texts this week. It’s the third anniversary of my mother’s death and my grief is complicated. And the things happening in the world that displace such callous indifference to human lives brings the angry cynic out in me. I’m working to contain these feelings as I read these texts… Read More
