The Adventurous Lectionary – The Fourth Sunday in Advent – December 21, 2025 Isaiah 7:10-16 Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19 Romans 1:1-7 Matthew 1:18-25 Just four days to Christmas. There is magic but also frenzy in the air. Many of us are racing to get the final Christmas presents and have been to the supermarket for supplies for Christmas festivities. While we can become enmeshed in the logistics of Christmas, we need also to awaken to the deeper rhythms of Christmas, the... Read more
The Adventurous Lectionary – Third Sunday of Advent – December 14, 2025 Isaiah 35:1-10 Luke 1:46b-55 James 5:7-10 Matthew 2:1-11 Advent is a time for hopeful transformation. It is a time of birth and possibility, of horizons of hope that liberate our imaginations and energize our actions. Advent is global and not parochial, inclusive and not anthropocentric, and both infinite and intimate. Advent portrays a world upside down, countercultural, in which the poor are uplifted and billionaires brought low, in... Read more
The Adventurous Lectionary – December 7, 2025 – The Second Sunday in Advent Isaiah 11:1-10 Psalm 72:1-7, 18-19 Romans 15:4-13 Matthew 3:1-12 Today, we explore radical transformation, guided by God, but brought about by ourselves. I think global history argues against a divine rescue operation. Today’s readings contain both threat and promise, and we might struggle with Isaiah’s vision of God as one who strikes the earth and kills the wicked. God sides with the oppressed and the wicked wealthy... Read more
The Adventurous Lectionary – The First Sunday of Advent -November 30, 2025 Isaiah 2:1-5, Psalm 22, Romans 3:11-14, Matthew 24:36-44 This week the theme is “woke spirituality.” “Woke” has a bad name in some circles, where people distrust the quest for diversity and justice, and want to return to a time before affirmative action, Black Lives Matter, LGBTQ+ rights, women’s rights; a time when misogynist and racist humor were acceptable, and white males got more than their fair share. A... Read more
The Adventurous Lectionary – November 23, 2025 – The Reign of Christ Jeremiah 23:1-6, Luke 1:68-79, Colossians 1;11-20, Luke 23:33-43 Where does “Christ the King” or “The Reign of Christ” Sunday fit in the wake of our recent “No King’s Day?” Can we speak of divine kings or sovereigns without privileging narrow understandings of Christianity or authoritarian understandings of the interplay of faith and politics? On the last Sunday of the Christian year, the Season of Pentecost, beginning with the... Read more
The Adventurous Lectionary – November 16, 2025 – Pentecost 23 Isaiah 65:17-25 and Isaiah 12 2 Thessalonians 3:6-13 Luke 21:5-19 Is there hope in our troubled times? Can we depend on God saving the day without our efforts? How shall we respond to the apostasy and immorality of the public policy of many “Christian” political and pastoral leaders and their congregants? (Now I realize that apostasy is a strong word but it applies to forsaking the prophets and social ethic... Read more
The Adventurous Lectionary – Twenty-fifth Sunday after Pentecost – November 9, 2025 Haggai 1:15b-2:9 Psalm 145:1-5, 17-21 2 Thessalonians 2:1-5, 13-17 Luke 20:27-38 “Now God is God not of the dead, but of the living; for to God all of them are alive,” so ends a cryptic exchange between Jesus and the Sadducees. Resurrection, rebirth, and renewal are at the heart of this week’s lectionary readings. The Sadducees think they have trapped Jesus with a “gothca question,” but Jesus confounds... Read more
The Adventurous Lectionary – Twenty-first Sunday after Pentecost – November 2, 2025 Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4; Psalm 119:137-144, II Thessalonians 1:1-4, 11-12; Luke 19:1-10 On this All Saints Sunday, we have a plethora of possibilities for the preacher. In this time of chaos in which leaders intentionally subvert the law and delight in dishonesty and destruction, we are invited to claim the larger vision of the moral and spiritual arcs of history, which will outlive all potentates and prevaricators. Today’s scriptures... Read more
The Adventurous Lectionary – The Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost – October 26, 2025 Joel 2:22-32; Psalm 65; 2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18; Luke 18:9-14 God have mercy! This plea is the beginning and end of the spiritual journey. Not just for “sinners’ but for all of us. It especially seems so as these are important days in the life of the nation and the religious year: No Kings Day, Election Day in certain states, Halloween and All Saints, and Reformation Day... Read more
The Adventurous Lectionary – October 19, 2025 – The Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost Jeremiah 31:27-34; Psalm 119:97-14; 2 Timothy 3:15-4:5; Luke 18:1-8. Our relationship with God is filled with contrasts. The Infinite is present in the finite, and the eternal in the temporal. While God is present in every situation, the unfolding of life, our own and our institutional and national life, involves interplay of order and chaos, novelty and tradition, providence and agency, and our alignment with divinity and... Read more
Select your answer to see how you score.
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In