Chapter Two – “Why do we do healing?”
I think that the first question I need to address is, “Why would we want to pray for miraculous healing?” After all, we are modern people and we have excellent physicians. It’s true that many of the things we will wind up praying for will be things that a doctor could cure, so why pray? […]
Chapter One – What Happened to Healing?
I’m still astonished that there is so little emphasis on healing ministry in most of the churches that I know or have been involved in. Apart from the Passion Narrative itself or Jesus’ longer discourses like the Sermon on the Mount or the High Priestly Prayer, it’s difficult to read more than a few pages […]
Introduction
Many years ago, when I was working as an ophthalmic assistant, one of my co-workers called me at home. She knew I was also a volunteer prison chaplain, and she wanted me to pray for her daughter. Her daughter and husband had been in a bad auto accident, and her daughter was in the ICU […]
Divergence on the Lectionary – Third Sunday of Easter, Year B
First Reading Acts 3:12–19 And when Peter saw it he addressed the people: “Men of Israel, why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we have made him walk? The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, […]
Divergence on the Lectionary – Second Sunday of Easter, Year B
First Reading Acts 4:32–35 Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common. And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the […]
Divergence on the Lectionary – Easter Sunday, Year B (Principal Service)
First Reading Acts 10:34–43 So Peter opened his mouth and said: “Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. As for the word that he sent to Israel, preaching good news of peace through Jesus Christ (he is […]
Divergence on the Lectionary – Passion Sunday, Year B
Because the Passion Narrative for this Sunday is so long, I’m putting a link here so that you can click straight to the Comments and Questions for Discussion if you’d rather do that than scroll and scroll (and scroll). (Click Here for Comments and Questions.) First Reading Isaiah 50:4–9a The Lord GOD has given me […]
Divergence on the Lectionary – Fifth Sunday in Lent, Year B
First Reading Jeremiah 31:31–34 “Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the […]
Divergence on the Lectionary – Fourth Sunday in Lent, Year B
First Reading Numbers 21:4–9 From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom. And the people became impatient on the way. And the people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? […]
Divergence on the Lectionary – The Third Sunday In Lent, Year B
First Reading Exodus 20:1–17 And God spoke all these words, saying, “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. “You shall have no other gods before me. “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that […]
The Stations of the Cross (online)
Introduction In the Passion, Jesus laid bare the way that God’s children have used the death of the innocent to distance themselves from their own dependence on violence. By removing the scales from our eyes, Jesus has broken forever the power of violence in our lives. We will never again be able to convince ourselves […]
Divergence on the Lectionary – Second Sunday in Lent, Year B
First Reading Genesis 17:1–7, 15-16 (Omitted verses included in italics) When Abram was ninety-nine years old the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless, that I may make my covenant between me and you, and may multiply you greatly.” Then Abram fell on his […]
Divergence on the Lectionary – First Sunday in Lent, Year B
First Reading Genesis 9:8–17 Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, “Behold, I establish my covenant with you and your offspring after you, and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the livestock, and every beast of the earth with you, as many as came out of the […]
Divergence on the Lectionary – Last Sunday after the Epiphany, Year B
First Reading 2 Kings 2:1–12 Now when the LORD was about to take Elijah up to heaven by a whirlwind, Elijah and Elisha were on their way from Gilgal. And Elijah said to Elisha, “Please stay here, for the LORD has sent me as far as Bethel.” But Elisha said, “As the LORD lives, and […]
Divergence on the Lectionary – Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany, Year B
First Reading Isaiah 40:21–31 Do you not know? Do you not hear? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a […]
Divergence on the Lectionary – Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany, Year B
First Reading Deuteronomy 18:15–20 “The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen—just as you desired of the LORD your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said, ‘Let me not hear again the voice […]
