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 […]
Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit
A great deal has been written about the sin often called “unpardonable” or “unforgiveable.” Many Christians live in fear of accidentally committing this sin, and being forever condemned to perdition. Others worry that at some point in their past they might have blasphemed the Holy Spirit and are therefore already beyond the reach of God’s […]
On Liturgy and Worship 14 – The Consecration
Have you ever been with someone who shared something so personal, so tender, so precious that you were almost embarrassed for them? As though they had accidentally disrobed in front of all of you, and you wanted to turn away while backing in with a cloak, as Noah’s sons did? This is the God we […]
On Liturgy and Worship 16 – The Fraction
In the third book (by my count, not the current publisher’s) of the Chronicles of Narnia, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, there is at the end a moment that still, after all these years causes me to catch my breath and tears to come to my eyes. Edmund and Lucy and Eustace, after their […]
On Liturgy and Worship 15 – The Lord’s Prayer
Last week I stopped before the Lord’s Prayer in the prayer of consecration. This week, I’m going to send you all a teaching I’ve used elsewhere on the Lord’s Prayer rather than “reinvent the wheel.” (Here’s a link to that paper on the Lord’s Prayer.) But that teaching doesn’t speak terribly well to the corporate […]
On Liturgy and Worship 13 – The Great Thanksgiving (The opening)
Having brought ourselves before the throne of the Almighty, giving ourselves to Him without reservation, we lift our eyes to look upon the King of Heaven and Earth. What Moses could not stand to see, we are privileged to look upon. Because of the Narrative we are about to recite, we may look upon God’s […]
On Liturgy and Worship 12 – Offering
At this point, we move from what liturgists like to call the “Liturgy of the Word” to the “Liturgy of the Table.” I don’t find that distinction very helpful, but it does place a certain shift at the same point in the service at which I am tempted to say that we move from “praise” […]