RCL: The Communion of Saints Offers Perspective

The communion of saints is an active category of faith for me—helping me remember I’m part of a story bigger than my life, my time in ministry, my years on earth. Three decades ago I threw myself into ministry, wanting to add value, make a difference, and change things that needed hanging. I worked and… Read More

RCL Commentary: Re-Forming Church

Many Protestant congregations will be celebrating Reformation Sunday this week. What a year for it! The church has been pushed in to a reformation whether we were ready for it or not. We have re-formed the way we worship. We have re-formed our education ministries and our outreach efforts and our governing assemblies. Some of… Read More

Proper 24, Year A – RCL –

(Matt. 22:15-22, Exodus 33:12-23, Isaiah 45:1-7, 1 Thess. 1:1-10) This week brings us that famous (infamous?) incident from Matthew 22, wherein the Pharisees try to trap Jesus by asking if it is lawful to pay taxes to the emperor. They know, as does Jesus, as does the biblical scholar, that for Jesus to say no… Read More

RCL: Weddings & Idols

This week is a harsh set of texts: between the distasterous wedding in Matthew 22 and the Golden Calf idol of Exodus 32 things are looking poor. (Quick note Narrative lectionary is doing the exact same Exodus passage, so we can all share resources this week). But then, things are looking fairly poor in the… Read More

Revised Common Lectionary: Respect As Spiritual Practice

Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20 Philippians 3:4b-14 Matthew 21:33-46 Is respect becoming an old-fashioned idea we remember only when we miss it? Today’s readings left me thinking a lot about respect. Wonder along with me about wanting respect, offering it, changing the criteria for it, and losing it. What did you think respect was and… Read More

Revised Common Lectionary: From the Wilderness

“From the wilderness of Sin the whole congregation of the Israelites journeyed by stages.”Exodus 17:1 “It is only the person who sins that shall die.” Ezekiel 18:4 Whichever Hebrew Bible lesson you’re using from this week’s Revised Common Lectionary, there’s an easy entre into the topic of sin. If that’s where you feel called to… Read More

RCL Reflections for 20 September: Death and Labor

It seems we have another week ripe for preaching; manna from Heaven, an indignant Jonah, St. Paul choosing to remain present in his dispersed communities of believers, and the parable of the landowner who pays in more ways than one. What bubbles up for you as you read the Exodus reading, as the people are… Read More

RCL reflections for 13 September: Forgiveness and debts

We have here an abundance of texts–Matthew 18:21-35, Genesis 50:15-21, Psalm 103–about forgiveness this week. And as I am in the middle of feeling vey angry about the state of–gestures around–everything I find the concept of forgiveness with more foreboding than usual. Here is Peter, who has perpetual foot-in-mouth, asking just how many times someone… Read More

RCL: Witnesses and Truth

Matthew 18:15-20 passage starts with the goal: To regain that one. In a time where the lost sheep parable is being used exhaustively to discuss Black Lives Matter (and some Queer Acceptance) in the church, I find it very hard to discern what it means to be lost. Certainly those who are asking for basic… Read More