Oct. 3, 2021 Psalm 26 Mark 10:13-16 I had a friend in seminary who was appalled at the idea that a person might live a whole life outside the bounds of faithfulness and at the last minute receive the grace of salvation. It may have been Karl Barth that she was objecting to. “Here […]
I sometimes listen to the Lutherans from Luther Seminary discuss the lectionary passages in their podcast called, “Sermon Brainwave.” This week they were unanimous in saying that there’s simply no rescuing Jesus from calling this Syrophoenician woman a dog. You can’t save him! You can’t say it’s a translation issue, or he didn’t really mean […]
August 29, 2021 Song of Solomon 2:8-13 Mark 7:1-8, 14-15 I had one of those strange weeks where the same theme kept manifesting in a number of forms. It began last Sunday when I shared with you how challenged I often feel when submitting to the notion of a Christian life. It’s not the […]
Aug. 22, 2021 John 6:56-69 “There was only one Christian, and he died on the cross.” That was Nietzche voicing his contempt for Christianity’s inability to produce convincing witnesses to their own proclamation. In other words, we couldn’t walk our own talk, which was tantamount to making our God as good as dead. Here’s […]
July 18,2021 2 Samuel 7:1-14a Mark 6:30-34, 53-56 I’ve mentioned Debbi Thomas to you before. She writes a weekly lectionary reflection on a site called, “Journey With Jesus.” You might check it out sometime. She’s always thoughtful, very authentic, and I’ve found that you can email her and she’ll even email you back. Here’s […]
June 20, 2021 Psalm 9:9-20 Mark 4:35-41 At our Midweek Boost on Wednesday we talked a bit about fear and faith and how the two are related. Rev. Rudy Rasmus, who has built some remarkable ministries in Houston, TX around feeding people – and has become something of a celebrity for it -, […]
June 6, 2021 1 Samuel 8:4-20 Mark 3:31-35 I’ve mentioned before that there are plenty of disagreements in scripture: contradictions and signs that the various biblical authors didn’t see things the same way. One of those areas of disagreement is the matter of Israel’s king and whether or not they should even have one. […]
May 30, 2021 Isaiah 6:1-8 John 3:1-17 If today’s gospel passage sounds vaguely familiar to you, like we read it just a couple of months ago during worship, that’s probably because we did. Actually, we read overlapping verses, so it wasn’t quite the same, but I chose to spend a good deal of time […]
May 16, 2021 Ascension Sunday Acts 1:1-11 Luke 24:44-53 It was about 6 years ago that I agreed to serve as a guinea pig for another church’s search committee. They wanted to practice their interview questions with someone before seeing real candidates whom they might actually call to become their new pastor. We got […]
May 9, 2021 Acts 10:44-48 John 15:9-17 I wonder how many of you remember the contents of the message preached at your wedding service. If I had to guess I would say, not many. I don’t blame brides and grooms for that. There’s often too much mental and emotional energy being directed elsewhere for […]