Receiving Your Inheritance – Proper 12, Year B
What if we actually did, receive our inheritance, that is? John 6:1-21 When Sara and I lived in Manhattan we worshiped for about two and a half years at the Church of the Holy Apostles. Sara also did a year’s “Field Education” there, so we became pretty involved for that short while. Holy Apostles’ great […]
Evangelism – Through the Gifts of the Spirit
The article below is one that I wrote a long time ago for the Cross, the publication of the Brotherhood of St. Andrew. That’s why it’s aimed at “men” and “brothers.” But it’s no less important for having been written that way. The world wasn’t nearly as messy a place when I wrote this as […]
Divergence on the Lectionary – All Saints, Year C
First Reading Daniel 7:1–3, 15-18 In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon, Daniel saw a dream and visions of his head as he lay in his bed. Then he wrote down the dream and told the sum of the matter. Daniel declared, “I saw in my vision by night, and behold, the four […]
Divergence on the Lectionary – Proper 26, Year C (track one)
First Reading Habakkuk 1:1–4, 2:1-4 O LORD, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear? Or cry to you “Violence!” and you will not save? Why do you make me see iniquity, and why do you idly look at wrong? Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise. So […]
Divergence on the Lectionary – Proper 25, Year C (track one)
First Reading Joel 2:23–32 “Be glad, O children of Zion, and rejoice in the LORD your God, for he has given the early rain for your vindication; he has poured down for you abundant rain, the early and the latter rain, as before. “The threshing floors shall be full of grain; the vats shall overflow […]
Divergence on the Lectionary – Proper 24, Year C (track one)
First Reading Jeremiah 31:27–34 “Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man and the seed of beast. And it shall come to pass that as I have watched over them to pluck up and break down, to […]
Divergence on the Lectionary – Proper 23, Year C (track one)
First Reading Jeremiah 29:1, 4–7 These are the words of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the surviving elders of the exiles, and to the priests, the prophets, and all the people, whom Nebuchadnezzar had taken into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. This was after King Jeconiah and the queen mother, […]
Divergence on the Lectionary – Proper 22, Year C (track one)
First Reading Lamentations 1:1–6 How lonely sits the city that was full of people! How like a widow has she become, she who was great among the nations! She who was a princess among the provinces has become a slave. She weeps bitterly in the night, with tears on her cheeks; among all her lovers […]
On the Gift of Tongues
Lately, I find myself praying for a new expression of the “gift of tongues.” I received my “prayer language” a number of years ago, and I still find myself “praying in tongues” pretty regularly. Sometimes I seek them out as a way of opening myself to God in prayer, other times they just happen, especially […]
Divergence on the Lectionary, Proper 21, Year C (track one)
First Reading Jeremiah 32:1–3a, 6-15 The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD in the tenth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, which was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar. At that time the army of the king of Babylon was besieging Jerusalem, and Jeremiah the prophet was shut up in the court of the […]
Divergence on the Lectionary – Proper 20, Year C (track one)
First Reading Jeremiah 8:18–9:1 My joy is gone; grief is upon me; my heart is sick within me. Behold, the cry of the daughter of my people from the length and breadth of the land: “Is the LORD not in Zion? Is her King not in her?” “Why have they provoked me to anger with […]
Divergence on the Lectionary – Proper 19, Year C (track one)
First Reading Jeremiah 4:11–12, 22-28 At that time it will be said to this people and to Jerusalem, “A hot wind from the bare heights in the desert toward the daughter of my people, not to winnow or cleanse, a wind too full for this comes for me. Now it is I who speak in […]
Receiving Your Inheritance, “Unwanted” Gifts? – I Advent, Year A
Isaiah 2:1-5, Psalm 122, Romans 13:11-14, Matthew 24:36-44 I don’t know for sure, but I rather doubt that you are accustomed to receiving things that hurt as gifts, as an inheritance to be desired. Still, as I read the lessons appointed for this week, I am reminded that one of God’s greatest gifts to me […]
Divergence on the Lectionary – Proper 18, Year C (track one)
First Reading Jeremiah 18:1–18 The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: “Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will let you hear my words.” So I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was working at his wheel. And the vessel he was making of clay was […]
On Liturgy and Worship 17 – Communion
I am going to conclude this series on the Eucharist by reflecting on the moment of Communion, the discernment and distribution of the Body and Blood of Jesus. It matters not to me whether we all agree on our language concerning the Presence of Christ in the elements of Communion. My experience is that even […]
Divergence on the Lectionary – Proper 17, Year C (track one)
First Reading Jeremiah 2:4–13 Hear the word of the LORD, O house of Jacob, and all the clans of the house of Israel. Thus says the LORD: “What wrong did your fathers find in me that they went far from me, and went after worthlessness, and became worthless? They did not say, ‘Where is the […]
