The Adventurous Lectionary – Pentecost 11 – August 21,2022 Jeremiah 1:4-10 Psalm 71:1-6 Hebrews 12:18-29 Luke 13:10-17 This week, we ponder God’s providential love that breaks through every barrier and challenges the limitations we place on our abilities and God’s gifts in our lives. God is willing to give us more than we can ask or imagine. We need to open our hearts, minds, and hands to receive the fullness of divine blessing for ourselves and others. This week, we... Read more
This morning, I began the day remembering a day that changed everything – the dropping of the first nuclear bomb on a populated area, Hiroshima, Japan. I ponder how little we seem to have learned in the past 77 years. We still live under the threat of Mutually Assured Destruction and act as if the MAD-ness of that “peacekeeping” deterrence is normal. We shiver when the leaders of North Korea and Russia suggest that they might use nuclear weapons to... Read more
The Adventurous Lectionary – The Ninth Sunday after Pentecost – August 7, 2022 Isaiah 1:1, 10-20; Psalm 50:1-8, 22-23; Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16; Luke 12:22-30 Now is the time for change. Now is the time to get our spiritual and ethical house in order and our values in line. The time is coming when values and actions, our relationship with God and neighbor, will go trump financial success, secular power, or material consumption. God invites us to be the change we... Read more
The Adventurous Lectionary – The Eighth Sunday after Pentecost – August 7, 2022 Hosea 11:1-11 Psalm 107:1-9, 43 Colossians 3:1-11 Luke 12:13-21 This Sunday we encounter the possibility of prophetic healing, the call to moral stature, and the challenges of wealth in the spiritual life. There are at least three sermons embedded in these lectionary readings. Hosea the prophetic challenges us to ask: Is God apathetic or passionate? Is God beyond concern for this world and its waywardness or does... Read more
The Adventurous Lectionary – Seventh Sunday after Pentecost – July 24, 2022 Hosea 1:2-10 Psalm 85 Colossians 2:6-19 Luke 11:1-19 Today’s readings are challenging. Though their ultimate message describes divine generosity and recovery, they are wrapped in difficult language, especially the words from Hosea and Psalm 85, both of which describe God’s behavior in problematic imagery for those who believe God’s nature to be defined by love not vengeance. There is an ethical calculus in the universe: though injustice often... Read more
The Adventurous Lectionary – The Sixth Sunday after Pentecost – July 17, 2022 Amos 8:1-12, Psalm 52, Colossians 1:15-28, Luke 10:38-42 I believe that God joins the Infinite and Intimate, the Everlasting and the Everchanging. God’s eye is on the sparrow, and also the formation of galaxies. Each moment is holy, and each moment is also part of the vast expanse of universal history. Holistic spirituality embraces both the grandeur and the finitude of life. As Psalm 8 says, we... Read more
The Adventurous Lectionary – The Fifth Sunday After Pentecost – July 10, 2022 Amos 7:7-17 Psalm 82 Colossians 1:1-14 Luke 10:25-37 Today’s readings are timely. The last month has turned our nation upside down. The Supreme Court has privileged gun rights over safety, power company rights over planetary survival, conservative Christian exceptionalism over religious pluralism, and devalued women to uplift the status of fetuses. The would-be dictator has been shown to be naked and yet he and his minions continue... Read more
I must confess that the Fourth of July is one of my favorite holidays. From my childhood, I have loved parades, outdoor grills, and fireworks. I never miss watching the Fourth of July Concert on the Capitol Mall on PBS. I love the marching bands and music of the day – “The Star Spangled Banner,” “God Bless America,” “America the Beautiful,” and anything by John Philip Souza. I’m a small town boy at heart, and remember bicycle parades and homemade... Read more
The Adventurous Lectionary -The Fourth Sunday in Pentecost – July 3, 2022 2 Kings 5:1-14 Psalm 30 Galatians 6:7-16 Luke 10:1-11, 16-20 As I write these words, I have just heard the news that the Supreme Court has struck down Roe v. Wade. This is a tragic day for the United States, following another sad day in which the Supreme Court struck down New York gun laws. I am angry, but as Harry Emerson Fosdick says, “save us from weak... Read more
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Adventurous Lectionary – Pentecost 10 – August 14, 2022
The Adventurous Lectionary – The Tenth Sunday after Pentecost – August 14, 2022 Isaiah 5:1-7; Psalm 80:1-2, 8-19; Hebrews 11:29-12:2; Luke 12:49-56 Today’s passages on Israel, the Jewish community of the first century, and the twenty-first century USA? Election results suggest a national divide – Kansas votes to support reproductive rights, while Arizona chooses election-deniers and prevaricators in its Republican primary? Dishonesty and divisiveness seem to be the first and second commandments of many white Christians involved in politics? Can... Read more