The Adventurous Lectionary – The Fifth Sunday in Lent – April 6, 20025 Isaiah 43:16-21 Psalm 126 Philippians 3:4b-14 John 12:1-8 The Fifth Sunday in Lent is an invitation to gratitude and adventure. God is at work in the world and in the call and response of life is doing a new thing. God makes a way when we see no way and invites us forward beyond the past to be part of God’s new creation. The readings invite us... Read more
The Adventurous Lectionary – The Fourth Sunday in Lent – March 30, 2025 Joshua 5:9-12 Psalm 32 2 Corinthians 5:16-21 Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32 The Season of New Creation Lent is the season of new creation. Lent invites us to simplification, confession, and transformation. Our Lenten spirituality is personal but also communal and global; it involves simplifying and letting go in our personal lives and creating communities of confession, simplicity, and inclusion. The Lenten spirit reminds us that our ability to... Read more
The Adventurous Lectionary – The Third Sunday in Lent – March 23, 2025 Isaiah 55:1-9 Psalm 63:1-8 1 Corinthians 10:1-13 Luke 13:1-9 Today’s readings join grace, challenge, and hope. Three of the readings mention thirst or water. God is gracefully providing us with physical and spiritual nurture. Living waters and the bread of life are available from God without our efforts. That’s divine socialism and divine DEI. Everyone has a spiritual and economic safety net. What we need is already... Read more
Adventurous Spirituality The Celts were adventurers. They sailed off into unknown lands, sometimes sailing without a rudder, trusting that God would bring them to their place of resurrection, their place of wholeness and vocation. Each day was seen as adventure, filled with danger and possibility. Spirits, good and evil, lurked around every corner and in every grove of trees. So, Celtic travelers often drew a circle around themselves as they began each journey. The circle (or “caim”) reminded them that they... Read more
The Adventurous Lectionary – The Second Sunday in Lent – March 9, 2025 Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18 Psalm 27 Philippians 3:17-4:1 Luke 13:31-35 Today’s readings join hope, fear, and faith. They mirror our time of struggle and anxiety as the nation seems to be ruled by whim and bullying rather than policy and partnership. Many congregants have seen the nation they loved disintegrate over the past two months, and now see our nation’s leadership as the “bad guys” on the world... Read more
Living a Holy Lent: Spiritual Counsel for Pastors Ash Wednesday is on the horizon. The Season of Lent is upon us. In less than two days, we will gather to place ashes on congregants’ foreheads and embark on the Lenten journey. Lent, Holy Week, Advent, and Christmas are the most challenging seasons of the Christian year for spiritual leaders. During Lent, pastors usually have at least one more service or program each week and often spend extra time visiting shut-ins... Read more
Embracing the Tragic Beauty of Ash Wednesday: A Meditation on Beauty, Suffering, and Mortality, and the Wonder of Life Ash Wednesday is an opportunity to reflect on the tragic beauty of life. The philosopher Afred North Whitehead asserts that: “At the heart of the nature of things, there are always the dream of youth and the harvest of tragedy. The Adventure of the Universe starts with the dream and reaps tragic Beauty. This is the secret of the union of... Read more
Lectionary Reflections for Ash Wednesday March 5, 2025 Joel 2:1-2, 12-17; Psalm 51:1-12; 2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10; Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21 Can we remember Ash Wednesday without guilt? Can Lent be an embodied, rather than ascetic season? Is it possible to focus on transformation and creativity – the simplicity of spirit – that awakens us to quotidian resurrections throughout the Lenten and Easter Season? Ash Wednesday calls us to self-examination. Out of self-examination, embracing the wholeness of our lives, we take the first steps toward... Read more
The Adventurous Lectionary – The First Sunday in Lent – March 9, 2025 Deuteronomy 26:1-11 Psalm 91:1-2, 9-16 Romans 10:8b-13 Luke 4:1-13 Today’s readings speak of divine deliverance amid the personal and political challenges of life. As I write this morning, the USA is in turmoil. Democracy is in disarray. The nation is sliding into chaos, led by leaders who have lost their reason and any sense of civility. The readings assert that God is on our side, and when... Read more
The Adventurous Lectionary – Transfiguration of Jesus – March 2, 2025 Exodus 34:29-35 Psalm 99 2 Corinthians 3:14-4:2 Luke 9:28-43a On Transfiguration Sunday, we journey into the mystic. We journey in the transcendent incarnate in the world of time and space. Alfred North Whitehead asserts that the world lives by the incarnation of God, and if that is so, we can apprehend something of God in every person and situation. Still, some moments may be particularly transcendent to the divine:... Read more
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