Receiving Your Inheritance – “Build the Temple!”
Haggai 1:15b-2:9 Dear Friends, As I read the lessons appointed for this week, I simply could not escape the vision of Haggai. Perhaps its something as simple as the fact that of all these passages, that’s the only one I haven’t preached on before, but I don’t think so. Something caught fire in me as […]
Receiving Your Inheritance – The Beatitudes
Dear Friends, More has been written on the Beatitudes than I could read in a week. There can’t be anything new to say about them, can there? Still, having read them in Luke’s Gospel, in the setting in which Luke places them, I am going to presume to say something I hope will be new […]
Evangelism
Of the short stories I’ve written, this is my wife, Sara’s favorite. I should caution you before you begin that the language in it is rough. If you’re easily offended by cursing, don’t read it, but this is how it had to be. I wrote it because my part of the Christian family, the Episcopal […]
Week Three
Clearing the Decks, or, Crying out to the Father Acts 11:1-18, Psalm 148, Revelation 21:1-6, John 13:31-35 In these readings, we have as our Psalm one of the last five psalms, often called the “Hallelujah” psalms, because they all start with that word. (Hallelujah is the Hebrew for “Praise the Lord,” so some translations of […]
Divergence on the Lectionary – Proper 14, Year C (track one)
(To download a more easily printable PDF version, please click here.) First Reading Isaiah 1:1, 10-20 The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth; for the LORD has […]
Receiving Your Inheritance – “Go Lower!”
One of the great dangers of the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector in Luke 18 is the likelihood that some will read it and think, “Aha! I know who those Pharisees are! I know those self-righteous folk! I’m so glad I’m not like them! I confess regularly, I suffer their offensive glances, […]
Holy Scripture and the Consecration of Gene Robinson
(It’s a long paper, so here’s a link to the PDF.) A good number of years ago the Episcopal Church consecrated her first openly gay bishop. It caused quite a furor in large segments of the Anglican Communion, and out of that furor came something called “The Windsor Report.” One of the things that the […]
Why another study on Luke?
Many years ago I became aware as I led a Bible study on Luke for my congregation, that there were things about Luke-Acts that were/are true but that I hadn’t read anywhere. A great number of commentators on Luke’s two volume work have noted the importance of the role of the Holy Spirit in Luke, […]
Listen
Listen And the LORD said, “Go out and stand on the mount before the LORD.” And behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind tore the mountains and broke in pieces the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. And after the wind an earthquake, but the […]
Receiving Your Inheritance – Birthing Possibility
This weekend, one of the two possible lessons appointed for the Old Testament reading is the story of Jacob, wrestling all night with the “man” prior to his confrontation with Esau. As I prayed over this passage, it became increasingly clear to me that this process of wrestling is as close as a man might […]
Receiving Your Inheritance – Receiving Him
As I did with the Hearing His Voice pieces, I’ll be trying to tie what I write to the lections for each Sunday. I find that this helps discipline me, keeps me from ranging too far into my own thinking, and keeps me listening more carefully for the Father’s word to me/us each week. This […]
Receiving Your Inheritance – Introduction
These pieces were written a number of years ago. I’m leaving them in the present tense, as trying to make them sound current is silly and dishonest. So, here they are, as they were. A couple of weeks ago the Gospel from the lectionary in Luke 14 started off with Jesus saying to His followers, […]
Week Two
We Were Made for More (Acts 9:1-6 (7-20), Psalm 30, Revelation 5:11-14, John 21:1-19) Hearing the Father’s Voice is a way of being in relationship to Him that I longed for without knowing how to express it. I tried a lot of methods to satisfy that desire. I learned a lot about meditation along the […]
Week One
What? It does all that? Acts 9:36-43, Psalm 23, Revelation 7:9-17, John 10:22-30 Why bother? I mean, we get along well enough with our worship and our daily lives don’t we? Why all this interest in hearing God speak? This wasn’t the first of these reflections that I wrote. It is the first here […]
Introduction
Synopsis and Outline “Hearing His Voice” is and invitation and a guide into a life of intimacy with God where His voice is no longer something foreign, but a deeply valued and often used gift. It consists of 14 weekly “chapters” which begin with a longer reflection (generally 700-900 words) followed by five shorter “daily […]
Divergence on the Lectionary – Proper 13, Year C (track one)
First Reading Hosea 11:1–11 When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. The more they were called, the more they went away; they kept sacrificing to the Baals and burning offerings to idols. Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk; I took them up by […]
