The following is a reflection on Isaiah 8:1-8, the Old Testament lesson properly appointed for Trinity Sunday, Year B, according to the Revised Common Lectionary. The vision of Isaiah has always captivated me. It informs my vision of God’s Heavenly Kingdom perhaps more than anything else. It’s grand. Regal. Sweeping.
The following is a reflection on the 23rd Psalm, the Psalm properly appointed for Lent 4A Easter 4A,B,C, Proper 11B & Proper 23A, according to the Revised Common Lectionary. Why this Psalm? Of all the ancient texts, and all the glorious pieces of scripture, what makes us as a people and as a culture gravitate towards this one? I’ve presided over funerals where the majority of those in attendance didn’t know the Lord’s Prayer, but they could stumble […]
The following is a reflection on Luke 24:36b-48, the Gospel lesson for Easter 3B and the Thursday in Easter Week, according to the Revised Common Lectionary. The Gospel authors (especially Luke and John) go to great lengths to show that there’s something different about the resurrected Christ. Something so different that Mary Magdalene doesn’t recognize Jesus, and in fact mistakes him for the gardener, on Easter morning. And then the disciples on the road to […]
The following is a reflection on Matthew 16:21-28, the Gospel lesson for August 28, 2011, according to the Revised Common Lectionary (Proper 17). • Be sure to check out a reflection on the Hebrew Bible lesson for the same day . “Get behind me Satan!” has been a stock conversational phrase in our culture for quite some time now. But, even though we use it, and hear it, often, I’m not sure we’re much closer […]
The following is a reflection on Genesis 1:8-2:10, the Old Testament lesson for August 21, 2011, according to the Revised Common Lectionary. On this site there is also a reflection on the Gospel lesson of the day. The opening of the Book of Exodus is a primer on two ways of living: reacting out of fear, and acting out of compassion. Throughout the conflict with Pharaoh and the Egyptians, it’s fear and hard-heartedness which drives […]
Genesis 25 moves quickly. If you lift your eyes from the page you just might miss a few decades. In less than fifteen verses Jacob and Esau go from zygotes to teenagers. And yet, not much changes in those verses, or in those years: Jacob and Esau are very different creatures in the womb and very different creatures outside of the womb. Like their forebears Cain and Abel, one is refined and the other is […]
Remember “Sleepless in Seattle?” It’s a story of romance – romance that didn’t begin over Facebook or Social Media – but over the radio. Jonah was wasn’t just dealing with his mother’s death, but his father’s depression. He wanted him to find someone…though he had to approve of her. He calls a radio show and spills his dad’s beans all over the country. One listener to the show, Annie, not only gets drawn in, but […]
The Akedah is one of those chapters of the Bible which reminds us all too well that we don't have a neat and tidy little religion that is country-club respectable in all ways at all times. Sometimes the story comes off the tracks. But, the story somehow finds it's way back onto the tracks. There is always the possibility of redemption.
This isn't a text to absolutize. You can't (or at least shouldn't) attempt to build a theology of the trinity around this...This is Paul invoking the fullness of God in prayer over a community (koinonia) in Corinth that had it's issues.
I think it's helpful in this regard to not separate the Resurrection of Jesus and Coming of the Holy Spirit as two wholly separate and different things. They are two different things, but they have lots of overlap - and they are in a fuller sense two actions of the one-and-the-same sweeping act of God: God reconciling all things to Himself, God making all things new.