This week’s Revised Common Lectionary readings are timely. In Ephesians 2, Paul teaches that Jesus has erased divisions between people, and created a single, united humanity. Groups that were previously at odds have been reconciled. Peace reigns. Together, all people build a community that becomes the household of God, a place where the divine can interact… Read More
Revised Common Lectionary: With All Your Might
David brought the ark of God from the house of Obed-edom to the city of David with rejoicing. And David dance before the LORD with all his might. (2 Samuel 6:12-14 NRSV excerpt, part of this coming Sunday’s lectionary texts) Love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all… Read More
RCL: Authority
The common denominator in this week’s lectionary reading is that each of them are about authority, one way or another. Each of them stretches out the definition of authority, melting it and remaking it into the authority that is given by God, as opposed to the human definition. image from Shutterstock You Can’t Go Home: In… Read More
RCL: Waiting for Morning
The nights of weeping feel endless these days. I can’t help but ask when the joy of morning will come. The promise of the dawning joy is woven throughout this week’s texts. Lamentation and yearning lean in toward hope and healing in a way I desperately wish were true in the world. I live and… Read More
Revised Common Lectionary: Peace, Be Still
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
