Celebrating Salvation – Lent 4 Commentary – March 30, 2025

Last updated on: March 24, 2025 at 5:39 am By Bruce Epperly

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

Free For All – Lent 3 Commentary – March 23, 2025

Last updated on: March 17, 2025 at 5:42 am By Bruce Epperly

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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

The Spirit of St. Patrick: Resilience for Such a Time as Now

Last updated on: March 14, 2025 at 3:36 pm By Bruce Epperly

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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

Adventurous Lectionary – Lent 2 – March 16

Last updated on: March 10, 2025 at 7:54 am By Bruce Epperly

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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 Preachers

Last updated on: March 3, 2025 at 11:46 am By Bruce Epperly

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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

Last updated on: March 3, 2025 at 11:04 am By Bruce Epperly

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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

You Are Worthy – Lectionary Reflections for Ash Wednesday

Last updated on: March 3, 2025 at 9:54 am By Bruce Epperly

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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

Transforming Temptation – Lent 1 – March 9, 2025

Last updated on: March 3, 2025 at 8:29 am By Bruce Epperly

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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

Transfiguring Spirit – Transfiguration Sunday – March 2

Last updated on: February 23, 2025 at 7:46 am By Bruce Epperly

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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

Theology and Our Moral Crisis – Epiphany 7 – February 23

Last updated on: February 16, 2025 at 12:16 pm By Bruce Epperly

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The Adventurous Lectionary – The Seventh Sunday after the Epiphany – February 23, 2025 Genesis 45:3-11, 15; Psalm 37:1-11, 39-40; I Corinthians 15:35-38, 42-50; Luke 6:27-38 Good Theology as an Antidote to Bad Leadership Good theology is important in times of crisis and chaos. For example, African America mystic and preacher, Howard Thurman connects bad behavior – in his case, Jim Crow and racism – with the worship of bad gods. We become like the gods we worship is... Read more