I have been on the road lately, and will be for a while yet, first with my family on vacation and later with my youth group mission trip. On top of that I’ve had the dreaded summer cold, so I’ve found my time and energy very short. Because of that, I’m going to combine two weeks of lectionary texts–the fourth and fifth Sundays after Pentecost–and I’m going to be more selective about the texts I treat. This might happen again... Read more

  1 Samuel 15:34-16:13 What It’s About: This is the story of the selection of David as king over Israel. And as such, it’s the story of the rejection of a bunch of others, including Saul, about whom God is sorry–not that Saul had died, but rather than God had made Saul king in the first place. Ouch. What It’s Really About: I can’t read this passage without thinking about a beauty pageant. The candidates are made to parade around, and the... Read more

Sometimes I complain that the lectionary texts are too thin–that there isn’t enough to work with. So I suppose I shouldn’t complain too much when I find that the lectionary texts are too many–that there are so many options that I get overwhelmed and confused. But this week is fairly complicated, in my opinion, with two different Hebrew Bible readings and two different Psalms readings, which are grouped differently depending on your tradition and liturgical practices. I’m going to group... Read more

What follows is a sermon that I preached on Pentecost Sunday. I used Acts 2:1-21 and Ezekiel 37:1-14 as my texts.   When I was a kid, I lived about fifteen miles from the world headquarters of the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company. My grandfather worked at one of their plants, and my uncle worked at one of their plants and still does, and many of my friends had parents who worked for R.J. Reynolds. It was one of the best... Read more

Earlier this week I wrote a post that isn’t on any of the week’s lectionary texts, but might provide an alternative text if you’re so inclined. It’s a meditation on the synoptic gospel stories of the rich young ruler (as Luke puts it) in the context of the revelations that Josh Duggar molested his sisters and other girls. You can read it here. Isaiah 6:1-8 What It’s About: This is Isaiah’s call narrative, in which he hears God’s call to speak... Read more

There’s an old saying that ministers should preach with the bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other. These days the saying might be modified so that the hand that used to hold the newspaper now holds a smart phone with its Facebook feed open. This week, Facebook feeds have been full of news about America’s favorite dysfunctional weird relatives, the Duggar family of reality TV and conservative political fame. Revelations that the eldest son Josh molested his sisters... Read more

Acts 2:1-21 or Ezekiel 37:1-14 What It’s About: The lectionary provides two options here. And since this is Pentecost, they are both about renewal, new life from old, and the restorative and sustaining work of God. The Acts text is the story of Pentecost, with the divided tongues as of fire. The Ezekiel text is the vision of the valley of the dry bones. These are, for my money, two of the most inspiring passages in the bible, and it... Read more

  Acts 1:15-17, 21-26 What It’s About: This is about Judas’ replacement among the twelve. The scene is one in which the eleven apostles–Judas was indisposed, more on that in a moment–work to discern which person should be added to the group to get back to the number twelve. What It’s Really About: This is a fairly fascinating story, because it tells us that the number twelve was very important. It’s not intuitive, at least to me, that the number of the... Read more

Acts 10:44-48 What It’s About: It’s about ethnicity (Jews and Gentiles are both in view), baptism, and inclusion. What It’s Really About: This is one of the many places in Acts where we can see a bit of tension–some might call it embarrassment–about the inclusion of the Gentiles. Is this a sect of Judaism only, with all the same requirements that Judaism has? Or is it something different? Paul and the Jerusalem Christians seem to have clashed on this from time to... Read more

  Acts 8:26-40 What It’s About: This is the story of the Ethiopian eunuch, who met Philip on the road from Jerusalem to Gaza. What It’s Really About: What is this really about? That is a GREAT question. There are few passages in Acts where there is as much going on as there is in these few verses. On the surface, this is a story of the conversion of the eunuch (who does not get a name) by Philip. But there is... Read more