The Adventurous Lectionary – The First Sunday in Lent – March 1, 2020 Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7; Psalm 32; Romans 5:12-19; Matthew 4:1-11 Lent is a complicated season. It is a time of reflection and penitence, of giving up certain goods for greater goods. Lent is also the season of simplicity. The season of getting back to basics, to going from the worship of many things to the worship of the One True God. Purity of heart is to will one... Read more
The Transfiguration of Jesus – February 23, 2020 Exodus 24:12-18, Psalm 2, 2 Peter 1:16-21, Matthew 17:1-9 Be transfigured and transformed! The world abounds in divine glory. Everyday life is a window into Infinity. Though we may close our senses, the wonders of creation flow through every moment of experience. Transfiguration Sunday invites us to cleanse the doors of perception, so that we might experience Infinity is passing time. (William Blake and Aldous Huxley) Epiphany blossoms into theophany, the quest... Read more
Spiritual guides can be found anywhere and everywhere. They are found among our nation’s heroes and wise leaders. They are found among everyday people with no intellectual or spiritual pedigree. They surface in every faith tradition and among seekers who claim no specific faith tradition. They can even be found in our dialogues with characters from adult fiction and children’s stories. Though distant in time and place, we can encounter them in spiritual imagination. I regularly commune with Abraham Lincoln... Read more
The Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany – February 16, 2020 Deuteronomy 30:15-20, Psalm 119:1-8, I Corinthians 3:1-9, Matthew 5:21-37 Over the past few years, we have discovered that the planet is on fire! Flames engulf Australia and two years ago, the town of Paradise was destroyed by the raging Northern California fires. In an event similar to the legend of the fall and expulsion from the Garden, our behaviors are once again destroying paradise. Global climate change and longer fire... Read more
The Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany – February 9. 2020 Isaiah 58:1-12, Psalm 122:1-10, 2 Corinthians 1-13, Matthew 5:13-20 The Season of Epiphany calls us to creative transformation and to move from self-interest to world loyalty. It is the time of God’s revealing – the revealing of God’s vision, the unveiling of hidden truths in unexpected places, and the illuminating of how far we have strayed from God’s vision of Shalom, of the peaceable realm joining humankind and the non-human... Read more
The Adventurous Lectionary – Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany – February 2, 2020 Bruce G. Epperly Micah 6:1-8 Psalm 15 I Corinthians 1:18-31 Matthew 5:1-12 Today’s scriptures turn our social norms upside down. The race is not always to the swift. The powerful don’t always win. Independence is a vice, and interdependence a virtue. Justice trumps profit and humility outlasts celebrity. Micah charts this week’s lectionary adventure. The prophet proclaims God’s loving kindness. God has gracefully led the people to... Read more
Can you be both a mystic and a social activist? Can you hold a progressive, activist, theology, and be a contemplative? Can you be both heavenly minded and earthly good? Can we march for civil rights and affirm with Abraham Joshua Heschel that our legs are praying? Today as we remember Martin Luther King, let us affirm the wisdom of one of his spiritual mentors Howard Thurman. King and Thurman were mystic activists whose faith motivated their prophetic actions. The... Read more
The Adventurous Lectionary – The Third Sunday after the Epiphany – January 26, 2020 Bruce G. Epperly Isaiah 9:1-4 ; Psalm 27:1, 4-9; I Corinthians 1:10-18; Matthew 4:12-23 Today’s readings capture the spirit of the magi, non-Jews who experience God’s revelation when the rightful religious leaders are oblivious. Foreigners and strangers who worship God, while remaining true to their own faith and ethnicity. Following the star, taking a chance on a dream, they find Jesus. Their lives become their gifts.... Read more
The Adventurous Lectionary – Second Sunday after the Epiphany – January 19, 2020 Isaiah 49:1-7; Psalm 41:1-11; I Corinthians 1:1-9; John 1:29-42 The Second Sunday of Epiphany focuses on the nature of call. Life is a call and response in which God speaks to us in our gifts and in the events of our lives, and we respond, embodying God’s call in our own unique way. Our call is for us and our fulfillment. It is also for the world... Read more
The Baptism of Jesus – January 12, 2020 Isaiah 42:1-9; Psalm 29; Acts 10:34-43; Matthew 3:13-17 Today’s lectionary lens is the Baptism of Jesus. An adult baptism in which Jesus’ unique relationship with God is revealed. Jesus is God’s beloved child, uniquely called to be God’s messenger to the world. As Cape Cod pastor, I affirm that it’s all about water: flowing Jordan waters, waves on Cape Cod shores, the water of the womb, the waters that nourish our crops... Read more
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