The Adventurous Lectionary -The Third Sunday in Lent – March 15, 2025 Exodus 17:1-7; Psalm 95; Romans 5:1-11;. John 4:1-42 Today’s readings might be described as “grace in spite of ourselves.” While we were yet sinners, God sets into motion the healing process. When we doubt God, God gives us living waters. Our questions, and challenges, awaken new possibilities. God doesn’t demand perfection and even faith to reach out to us. God takes the initiative – and like a first... Read more
The Adventurous Lectionary – The Second Sunday in Lent – March 8, 2020 Genesis 12:1-42; Psalm 121; Romans 4:1-5; 13-17; John 3:1-17 God’s call is universal and ubiquitous. God is still moving and speaking, and faithfulness to God invites us to be on the move, too! The story of Abraham’s call celebrates forward movement. Despite the brevity of the text and the absence of Sarah as an equal protagonist, the passage points to forward looking spirituality. With Abraham Joshua Heschel,... Read more
Ash Wednesday: A Boomer’s Meditations on Beauty and Mortality Bruce G. Epperly For the past year, I have been interviewing retired pastors for my upcoming book on adventures in clergy retirement. Although I am now in the Medicare Generation, I often describe myself as being in midlife, provided I live to be 134! This September I will be attending my 50th high school reunion. I’m looking forward to it, but, oh my, we boomers from the class of 1970 have... Read more
Ash Wednesday is on the horizon. In just a few days, we 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 and giving home communions. Then, there’s Holy Week with at least two and often as many as six... Read more
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
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