Mysticism that Moves the World – May 4 Lectionary Commentary

Last updated on: April 27, 2025 at 4:16 pm By Bruce Epperly

The Adventurous Lectionary – The Third Sunday of Easter – May 4,2025 Acts 9:1-20; Psalm 30; Revelation 5:11-14; John 21:1-19 An Abundance of Possiblities Some Sundays give the preacher too many possibilities, and The Third Sunday of Easter is no exception. The Third Sunday of Easter is a mother lode of riches for the adventurous preacher, chock full of homiletical possibilities. The readings all have a mystical air, but they express the life-changing mystic vision in a variety of ways.... Read more

The Second Sunday of Easter – Lectionary Commentary

Last updated on: April 21, 2025 at 8:42 am By Bruce Epperly

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The Adventurous Lectionary – Second Sunday of Easter – April 27, 2025 Acts 5:22-27; Psalm 150; Revelation 1:4-8; John 20:19-31 On one of the two Sundays of the Christian year, often described as “low Sundays,” (the other being the Sunday after Christmas) let the Easter celebrations continue! Let us sing Easter hymns and even repeat “Christ the Lord is Risen Today.” Let us embrace resurrection along with the challenges that an uncertain, morally ambiguous world presents us. In these troubled... Read more

Embracing Resurrection without Supernaturalism

Last updated on: April 20, 2025 at 7:40 am By Bruce Epperly

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Embracing Resurrection without Supernaturalism There is no getting around Easter if you belong to the Christian family. Jesus’ first followers were transformed by their encounters with the Risen Christ. Once fearful, they became courageous; once uncertain, they became confident in that Jesus was unique, the savior of humankind, victorious over sickness, sin, and death. Something happened – something amazing – that changed everything, that raised their dead spirits and energized their lives. The power of the resurrection to transform lives... Read more

The Day When Nothing Happens – A Holy Saturday Reflection

Last updated on: April 19, 2025 at 9:34 am By Bruce Epperly

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HOLY SATURDAY – THE DAY WHEN NOTHING HAPPENS What should we do with Holy Saturday? At first glance, Holy Saturday is a day in which nothing happens. In which the future is uncertain: the realm of God is here in God’s creative love and not-yet in the human choice to defy of God’s vision. In which no one expects a resurrection. Holy Saturday is the time in which we live, when our future, the future of our nation, and the... Read more

Only a Suffering God can Save – A Good Friday Reflection

Last updated on: April 18, 2025 at 8:51 am By Bruce Epperly

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Good Friday Meditation – “Only A Suffering God Can Save” German theologian, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who spent his last days in a concentration camp, asserted that only a suffering God can save. Surely his words come alive as we reflect on the meaning of Good Friday. Jesus, God’s beloved child, is abandoned, beaten, and crucified by those he sought to save and heal. He came to bring light, yet some, especially the powerful, preferred darkness, and by their acts, crucified the... Read more

Good Friday Without Divine Violence

Last updated on: April 17, 2025 at 7:25 pm By Bruce Epperly

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Beyond Divine Violence What do you do with Good Friday and the Cross when you’ve abandoned the doctrines of substitutionary atonement and the divine necessity of Jesus’ death? When you affirm that Jesus died because of sinful humankind, not to satisfy the wrath of God toward humanity? Like many progressive Christians, I grew up hearing the mantras “Jesus died for our sins,” “Jesus died so that we might have eternal life and escape God’s wrath,” “Jesus paid the price for... Read more

Love in a Troubled Time – A Maundy Thursday Reflection

Last updated on: April 17, 2025 at 5:38 pm By Bruce Epperly

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In his book on survival amid the Holocaust, Man’s Search for Meaning, Viktor Frankl quotes Fyodor Dostoevsky “There is only one thing that I dread: not to be worthy of my sufferings.” In the maelstrom of Maundy Thursday, with violence on the horizon perpetrated by leaders drunk with power and fearful of change, we are given a model for responding to conflict, uncertainty, and suffering with grace, compassion, and love. Maundy Thursday comes the Latin translation of “new commandment”: Jesus’... Read more

Empty Tomb and Open Future: Easter Lectionary Commentary

Last updated on: April 14, 2025 at 11:55 am By Bruce Epperly

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The Adventurous Lectionary – Easter Sunday – April 20, 2025 Acts 10:34-43 Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24 I Corinthians 15:19-26 John 20:1-18 and Mark 16:1-8 Despite the celebrations that attend the resurrection of Jesus, Easter is a challenge for most preachers. Perhaps more so this year, as we live in a troubled time in which the nation’s leaders seek to undermine the values of Jesus and threaten the sanctuary status of churches. Can we speak of resurrection when the power brokers, even those... Read more

Caesar or Jesus: A Palm Sunday Sermon

Last updated on: April 13, 2025 at 8:03 pm By Bruce Epperly

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Ceasar or Jesus? Philippians 2:5-11 Luke 19:28-40 Good News and Bad News This morning on Palm Sunday, when we live between a celebrative parade and the violence of the cross…With Easter on the far horizon, I will follow the revival preachers of the small town Baptist church of my childhood, and begin with the bad news, and then the sweet good news of God’s love softly and tenderly calling, O sinner come home…O nation come home…O heart be healed and... Read more

Palms and Passion – Palm Sunday Lectionary Guide – April 13

Last updated on: April 6, 2025 at 3:18 pm By Bruce Epperly

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Palm-Passion Sunday – April 13, 2025 Bruce G. Epperly The Triumphant Entry Luke 19:28-40 Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29 The Passion of Jesus Isaiah 50:4-9a Psalm 31:9-16 Philippians 2:5-11 Luke 23:1-49 Celebration or Passion At the edge of Holy Week, the preacher must ponder whether to lean toward the violence and abandonment of Maundy Thursday and Good Friday or focus on the celebrative spirit of Palm Sunday or attempt a creative synthesis of both. Holy Week is an emotional and spiritual roller... Read more