Lectionary Reflection, Baptism of our Lord Sunday, January 9, 2021
How will you remember your baptism on this day? How will you help other Christians remember and celebrate their baptism? What can we do to encourage one another to live our baptism each and every day? (Photo by auntjojo. Thanks!)
Revised Common Lectionary Reflection for Jan. 2, 2022.
This week’s lessons provide powerful reminders that we are really in control of precious little–and that is very good and counter-cultural in a world where we celebrate power, money, fame, reason, and all that appears rational. (Photo: Luiz Filipe Carnelro Machado, Creative Commons)
Revised Common Lectionary Reflection, First Sunday of Christmas, Year C.
December 26, 2021
If you are not planning a worship service of lessons and carols, this week’s Scripture lessons offer a number of preaching points that can help close out the year and prepare for the New Year with joy, peace, love, and a renewed vision for discipleship. (Photo: Erephas, Creative Commons)
Revised Common Lectionary Reflection, Fourth Sunday of Advent, Year C.
December 19, 2021
In these dark days, we are invited to encounter the incarnation–not only in the birth of Jesus, but also in communion, in community, and in everyday experiences of the divine. Emmanuel, after all, means God is with us. (Photo by Violetta79. Thanks!)
Lectionary Reflection, 3rd Sunday of Advent, Year C
December 12, 2021
Celebrate this Sunday with water, Word, Meal, fire, and Spirit wind, all infused with flavors of joy and hope. These elemental components will help our Advent prepare us for the coming of Christ. (Photo by Gunjan Karun. Thanks!)
Revised Common Lectionary Reflection, First Sunday of Advent, Year C
November 28, 2021
Advent involves waiting, but do tell the story in a way that invites disciples to live into the countercultural and radical message of the good news. Doing so requires us to be creative, truthful, engaging, and maybe a little playful, too. Here are some ideas to begin that conversation.
RCL Lectionary Reflection, Reign of Christ, Year C, November 24, 2019
Even as he hung there dying at the hands of Empire and the religious leaders of his day, Jesus was still loving others and showing mercy, kingly qualities indeed. This week’s lesson ends with the thief’s request to be remembered. Jesus responds, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.” We do not, however, have to wait until we’re dying to be with Jesus in “paradise.” (Photo: Chip Simons, Creative Commons)
RCL Lectionary Reflection, Proper 28 (33), Twenty-Third Sunday after Pentecost, Year C, November 17, 2019
We as the church face some stiff challenges, but that’s okay. There’s nothing that God cannot make a way from, and we are promised that God will never leave us. Even if our structures crumble and burn to the ground, the Spirit will resurrect something new from the ashes. Are we ready for God to do a new thing? (Photo: Peter Kaminski, Creative Commons)
RCL Reflection, November 10, 2019
We follow a God of the living as Jesus says, “for to him all of them are alive.” Whenever we start playing the what if game we leave little room to listen for God’s call—on our individual lives and on our life together as church. We turn inward, fall prey to worry, and fail to see the presence of God among us in the very folks and situations about which we fret and fume. (Photo: a2gemma, Creative Commons)
RCL reflection for November 3, 2019
This year how about recasting the observance of All Saints to include not only the ancestors but also present day saints and the future faithful? Make the day a celebration of ALL the saints who together weave a colorful and expansive tapestry of faith, who let the light of Christ shine through their own lives, and who choose an alternative way of living and being. (Photo: Creative Commons, Thanks!)
