May 2, 2021 Acts 8:26-40   One of my friends and clergy colleagues, now retired, tells the story of baptizing the infant child of a somewhat troubled couple.  I don’t remember the specifics of their difficulties, but it was a small town and a small church and everybody knew everybody’s business.  So, whatever the issues […]

April 25, 2021 Acts 4:5-12 Psalm 23 John 10:11-18   During the season of Eastertide – that is, the 6 Sundays after Easter – the lectionary replaces the Old Testament lessons with readings from the Book of Acts.  In other words, rather than drawing our attention to the ancient witness of the scriptures that Jesus […]

April 18, 2021 Luke 24:36b-48 Acts 3:12-19   Make no mistake: if he rose at all It was as His body; If the cell’s dissolution did not reverse, the molecule reknit, The amino acids rekindle, The Church will fall.   It was not as the flowers, Each soft spring recurrent; It was not as His […]

March 28, 2021 Mark 11:1-11 Philippians 2:5-11 Palm/Passion Sunday   “Why did the dude have to die?”  My colleague at lectionary group shared this question the other day.  I should have listened more carefully because I don’t remember if the child who asked it was a relative of his or not, or how he knew […]

March 14, 2021 John 3:14-21   Here we are this morning with John 3:16, that passage that everybody knows.  “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”  It seems wrong to read this passage in church […]

March 7, 2021 Exodus 20:1-17 John 2:13-22   Professor Joy J. Moore, for Luther Seminary’s team of “Sermon Brainwave” podcasters, turned commentary about the 10 Commandments into preaching the other day, and I have to say it was awesome.  I won’t do it justice, but I’ll try.  She reminded us that these set of rules […]

Isaiah 40:21-31 Mark 1:29-39 The healing passages in the gospels are tricky and to be honest with you, sometimes I would rather not even deal with them. It’s not that I don’t believe that Christ is still healing and even doing so dramatically; it’s more that it seems like he’s doing it to a lesser […]

Angela and I binge watched our way through the Crown.  Never having had much of an interest in British Royalty it surprised me how compelling, if not always enjoyable, I found the show to be.  There was one episode – or actually, a particular segment of an episode – that’s been playing in my mind […]

Dec. 13, 2020 1 These 5:16-24 John 1:6-8, 19-28   As I mentioned last week, Advent always gives us a double shot of John the Baptist before turning to Mary and Joseph and something that sounds a little more Christmassy on the fourth Sunday of the season.  Last week’s “John the Baptist” was Mark’s version […]

Dec. 6, 2020 Advent 2 Isaiah 40:1-11 Mark 1:1-8   “‘What genre is the bible?’ she asked me, over a table full of half-empty wineglasses and scattered paperbacks.” That’s how Julia Seymour, a Lutheran pastor in Montana, begins her lectionary reflection for the Christian Century Magazine this week. What genre is the bible?  What an […]