The Adventurous Lectionary – Tenth Sunday after Pentecost – August 2, 2015 2 Samuel 11:26-12:13a Psalm 51:1-12 Ephesians 4:1-16 John 6:24-35 This Sunday’s readings focus on the realities of sin and grace. Our recognition of our fallibility opens us to grace beyond our efforts; the transformative energy emerging from a grace and power greater than our own. We may not feel we deserve grace, but God’s grace can give us a new life and new-orientation in the midst of our... Read more
The Adventurous Lectionary – The Ninth Sunday after Pentecost – July 26, 2015 2 Samuel 11:1-15 Psalm 14 Ephesians 3:14-21 John 6:1-21 This week’s passages encompass the polarities and ambiguities of life. They join individual and communal, scarcity and abundance, and fallibility and grace. Close to God’s heart, David is an ambiguous hero. Tempted and seduced by beauty, taking advantage of his political power to sleep with Bathsheba, desperately attempting to cover it up, and then going as far as... Read more
I read Peter Mommsen’s Homage to a Broken Man: A Story of Faith, Forgiveness, Sacrifice, and Community with mixed feelings. It surely is an excellent testimony to one man’s fidelity. J. Heinrich Arnold (Heiner) lived his life fully before God, submitting to his understanding of following Jesus in Christian community. It is also a witness to the failure of a community to live up to its ideals and instead, despite its desire to become Christ-centered, become an example of a... Read more
The Adventurous Lectionary – The Eighth Sunday after Pentecost – July 19, 2015 2 Samuel 7:1-14a Psalm 89:20-37 Ephesians 2:11-22 Mark 6:30-34, 53-56 God’s covenant embraces all of us, promising more than we can ask or imagine. How do we best align ourselves with God’s vision of abundant life for us and those we love? The passage from Samuel explores the nature of God’s covenant with David and his descendants. It affirms that although God travels with us, and is... Read more
The Seventh Sunday after Pentecost – July 12, 2015 2 Samuel 6:1-5, 12b-19 Psalm 24 Ephesians 1;3-14 Mark 6:14-29 Do you dance with God? Does worship inspire passion and ecstasy? What happens when you dance to a different drum than God’s? Do our lives become destructive rather than creative? The reading from Samuel describes David and his companions dancing with all his might in God’s presence. While we might not localize God to a particular religious object, we can affirm... Read more
The Adventurous Lectionary – The Sixth Sunday after Pentecost – July 5, 2015 2 Samuel 5:1-5, 9-10 Psalm 48 2 Corinthians 2:2-10 Mark 6:1-13 In today’s lectionary readings, I am focusing on the New Testament readings and their emphasis on the role of faith to transform our lives, and enable us to face creatively even those things that cannot be changed. The words of 2 Corinthians 12 portray the relationship between mysticism, humility, faithfulness, and divine assurance. Paul describes the... Read more
Fifth Sunday after Pentecost – June 28, 2015 2 Samuel 1:1, 17-27 Psalm 130 2 Corinthians 8:7-15 Mark 5:21-43 Today’s texts invite us to consider the need for healing. We need healing of our experiences of loss, of our sense of moral failure, greed, and brokenness of body, mind, spirit, and relationships. The Old Testament reading describes David’s grief over the death of Saul and Jonathan and provides an opportunity to reflect on the universality of loss. “The mighty have... Read more
On my study desk sits a paperweight that announces “solvitur ambulando,” or “it will be solved in the walking.” Jody Gentian Bower’s Jane Eyre’s Sisters: How Women Live and Write the Heroine’s Story could easily be described as “it will be solved in the wandering.” As I read this insightful text, transformative for both women and men, I couldn’t help but remember the words of J.R.R. Tolkien, “all who wander are not lost.” Bower’s text, describing the journey of the heroine,... Read more
The Fourth Sunday after Pentecost – June 21, 2015 I Samuel 17: 1a, 4-11, 19-23, 32-49 Psalm 9:9-20 II Corinthians 6:1-13 Mark 4:35-41 Trusting God we can do greater things than we can imagine. Faith opens us to quantum leaps of power, inspiration, and energy. God’s grace is sufficient for us to respond to every crisis. Though we appear weak, we are strong in God’s love. What child doesn’t love the story of David and Goliath, described in I Samuel... Read more
The Third Sunday After Pentecost – June 14, 2015 I Samuel 15:34-16:13 Psalm 20 II Corinthians 5:6-10, 16-17 Mark 4:26-34 God looks beyond appearances to see the human heart. God goes beyond the superficial to see beauty hidden in geodes and wonders in a small seed. A child’s lunch can feed a multitude. A persecutor can become the leading voice for a global faith. There is more to be found in every person and situation, and congregation. Amid the concrete... Read more
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