Adventurous Lectionary – Third Sunday of Easter

Last updated on: April 7, 2024 at 3:23 pm By Bruce Epperly

The Third Sunday of Easter – April 14, 2024 Acts 3:12-19 Psalm 4 I John 3:1-7 Luke 24:36b-48 You can’t manage or control a resurrection. You can’t even fully understand it. You can’t put it into your normal understanding of reality. Like all mystical experiences, resurrection is always life-shattering and initially beyond belief. We can neither expect nor plan a resurrection. But, when it comes, we are amazed and transformed. Can we who have heard the resurrection stories countless times,... Read more

Adventurous Lectionary – Second Sunday of Easter

Last updated on: April 1, 2024 at 9:49 am By Bruce Epperly

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The Second Sunday of Easter Acts 4:32-35 Psalm 133 I John 1:1-2:2 John 20:19-31 Some Sundays the preacher receives too possibilities for preaching. There are so many entry points we don’t know where to start. Today’s scriptures have too much going on to cover in just one sermon. They could easily be part of a sermon series on practices of Easter. Or, if you want to deviate from the lectionary, as I have occasionally done with this scripture, you can... Read more

Living with Uncertainty: A Meditation on Holy Saturday

Last updated on: March 29, 2024 at 5:27 pm By Bruce Epperly

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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 and the realm of God is here and not-yet. 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 future of our planet is uncertain. During Holy Week, most of us focus on the palms, the passion, and the... Read more

The Seven Last Words of Christ – The Saving Suffering God

Last updated on: March 28, 2024 at 6:53 pm By Bruce Epperly

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Good Friday Script The Seven Last Words of Christ? Only a Suffering God can Save As far as memory reaches, I remember the songs of the cross, “The Old Rugged Cross,” “How Great Thou Art,” “Are You Washed in the Blood,” and “It is Well with My Soul.” But, one stands out, the African American spiritual, “Were You There When They Crucified My Lord.” As the song goes, “sometimes I causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble,” when I ponder the... Read more

Good Friday: Salvation without Divine Violence

Last updated on: March 27, 2024 at 9:20 am By Bruce Epperly

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What do you do with Good Friday and the Cross when you’ve abandoned the centrality of the doctrines of substitutionary atonement and the divine necessity of Jesus’ death? 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 our salvation,” and “sin deserves death and Jesus stood in our place.” Recently, I saw a billboard with the... Read more

Adventurous Lectionary – Easter Sunday – March 31, 2024

Last updated on: March 25, 2024 at 9:25 am By Bruce Epperly

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The Adventurous Lectionary – Easter Sunday – March 31, 2024 Acts 10:34-43 Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24 I Corinthians 15:19-26 John 20:1-18 and Mark 16:1-8 Every day, I wake up with the affirmation, “This is the day that God has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it!” I rejoice and give thanks that I am alive, grateful, and open to unheard of possibilities. What new and glorious thing will God do in this unrepeatable day. I am “woke” to wonder... Read more

A Journey Through Holy Week

Last updated on: March 22, 2024 at 7:14 pm By Bruce Epperly

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Holy Week is a lifetime in miniature. All the seasons of life – indeed, the hopes and fears of all the years – are found in the adventures of Holy Week. It goes from celebration to conflict, betrayal, suspense, and then back to a celebration that lasts a lifetime. As the commercial says, “life comes at you fast,” and so does Holy Week. Like Christian, a lifetime experience is compressed into a brief capsule. We almost need a month to... Read more

Adventurous Lectionary – Palm/Passion Sunday

Last updated on: March 17, 2024 at 6:11 pm By Bruce Epperly

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The Adventurous Lectionary – Palm and Passion Sunday – March 24, 2024 Mark 11:1-11 Philippians 2:5-11 Mark 14:1-15:47 (or 15:1-47) This year, it feels like we have been in Jerusalem during Holy Week. We hear the bombs falling in Gaza and feel the grief of Palestinians and Israelis for the atrocities sanctioned by both sides’ leadership, we struggle with the continuing Russian attacks on Ukraine sovereignty, we overhear presidential candidates speaking positively about Hitler and Putin and mesmerizing the majority... Read more

Adventurous Lectionary – Lent 5 – March 17, 2024

Last updated on: March 10, 2024 at 4:06 pm By Bruce Epperly

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The Adventurous Lectionary – The Fifth Sunday in Lent – March 17, 2024 Jeremiah 31:31-34 Psalm 51:1-12 Hebrews 5:5-10 John 12:20-33 As we lean toward Holy Week, we are confronted by questions of law, grace, and mercy. What is it like to have God’s law written on our hearts? What would it be like to have God’s presence as near as our heartbeat? For most of us, there is a gap between God’s vision and our behaviors and attitudes. The... Read more

Adventurous Lectionary – Lent 4 – March 10, 2024

Last updated on: March 3, 2024 at 6:07 pm By Bruce Epperly

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Adventurous Lectionary – The Fourth Sunday in Lent – March 10, 2024 Numbers 21:4-9 Psalm 107:1-3, 17-22 Ephesians 2:1-10 John 3:14-21 What is God like? What is God’s character? Is God for us or against us? Is God primarily punitive or graceful in nature? Can we trust God’s love or is there a “hidden” violent side to God, inspiring fear and not companionship? The readings for March 10 describe an ambiguity in divinity. Though they speak of divine rescue and... Read more

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