Revised Common Lectionary Reflection for the Ninth Sunday after Pentecost, Year A, August 6, 2017
In this week’s gospel lesson, Jesus instructs his disciples to give the crowd something to eat. All they see is scarcity and an impossible situation. Jesus sees and makes abundance. What do you see? God’s abundance is all around, and we are invited to share in it. Are you ready to feed and be fed? Come to the table! (Photo: hoyasmeg, Creative Commons)
Revised Common Lectionary Reflection for the Eighth Sunday after Pentecost, Year A, July 30, 2017
Like adolescent students afraid to show our lack of understanding, folks often claim an understanding of the mysteries of the faith and what it takes to be a faithful steward and disciple. After all, no one likes to ask the dumb question or be perceived to be lacking in knowledge. For the church to meet the demands of our 21st century world it’s absolutely essential that we have clear teaching and preaching, working on biblical literacy in ways that abate fear and feelings of inadequacy, helping families find ways to nurture faith in the home, and welcoming everyone to the table and life in Christian community. (Photo: Samah Arafat, Creative Commons)
Narrative Lectionary Reflection for the Eighth Sunday after Pentecost, Year Three, July 30, 2017
To plant a garden is to invest in the future of one’s well-being and bountiful table. Such work requires love, attention, care, and commitment.“Growing” spiritually gifted disciples involves similar effort and process. One doesn’t baptize the person and then only attend to cultivating the disciple a couple of times a year or even an hour on Sundays. It takes the same kind of consistent effort and commitment to grow disciples and strengthen their faith as it does to take a plant from seedling to abundant harvest. Discipleship is not a once-a-week activity but rather a life-long season of living into one’s identity as a child of God.
Narrative Lectionary Reflection for the Seventh Sunday after Pentecost, Year A, July 23, 2017
Peace. Sometimes it seems like such an elusive word, such a foreign concept–especially if you’ve been spending much time with social media or the news lately. We humans crave peace and need peace, but we’re not very good at making and keeping peace. Thankfully, our Lord IS in the peace business–proclaiming and passing and breathing peace into the darkest corners of this fallen and fragmented world of ours, and exhorting us to find peace both in rest and in trust in his abiding presence. (Photo: Leland Francisco, Creative Commons)
Revised Common Lectionary Reflection for the Seventh Sunday after Pentecost, Year A, July 23, 2017
We need to remind one another that God created this world and all that’s in it, proclaiming it good. Sin entered the world, sowing pain and suffering in its wake and fracturing the perfect goodness of the created order. God came into the messy midst of us in human form to bridge that fracture and begin the process of redeeming all creation. We, saint and sinner, Duke’s Mixture disciples, are involved in that restoration. (Photo: Aske Holst, Creative Commons)
Narrative Lectionary Reflection for the Sixth Sunday after Pentecost, Year Three, July 16, 2017
Today’s lesson reminds us that we are all beneficiaries of God’s good “will” in Christ Jesus. We are adopted into God’s family and recipients of abundance. Even if your congregation or family is struggling financially, you are still rich beyond measure as heirs of God’s grace, mercy, and salvation. We have been richly blessed by God who loves us, adopted into God’s family, and blessed to be a blessing. This is very good news!
RCL Reflection, Fifth Sunday after Pentecost, Year A, July 9, 2017
In Jesus we have not only a life saver but also a life Savior, and this makes all the difference in the world. in 1912 the creation of small life saver-shaped candies saved candy maker Clarence Crane’s business by boosting his summer sales when shipping chocolate was impractical, The salvation Jesus freely offers us as our Life Savior is ever so much sweeter and longer lasting! (Photo: Amanda Munoz, Creative Commons)
Narrative Lectionary Reflection for the Fifth Sunday after Pentecost, Year Three, July 9, 2017
This week we finish our summer Psalm series, and we end on a high note—a note of praise and hallelujah. Imagine how much better our world could be if we always ended on a note of praise with a song of joy and thanksgiving on our lips? What if we trusted God enough to offer our praise and thanksgiving no matter what our situation? (Photo: Derek Bridges, Creative Commons)
Narrative Lectionary Reflection for the Fourth Sunday after Pentecost, Year Three, July 2, 2017
Psalm 30 is a song of praise to the God who constantly lifts us up and who will never leave us. How should we respond? We may sing off-key and dance awkwardly, but our job is to point to the One who holds it all together, to pour out our offering of praise and thanks, to fall down seven and get up eight by the grace of God. How will you sing of God’s goodness this Sunday? How will you proclaim the promise and hope of resurrection in the face of this world’s lies about death and destruction? What song is stuck in your head? (Photo: Noel Pennington, Creative Commons)
Narrative Lectionary Reflection for the Third Sunday after Pentecost, Year Three, June 25, 2017
Luther likens the 23rd Psalm’s “green pasture” to the church, and the church’s beloved community to the Good Shepherd’s flock. It is easy to overlook the fact that this short psalm of praise is both communal as well as personal. We are stronger in community, and we have the capacity to be better, too. In community, in concert and in contact with God’s word read and proclaimed, and in the bread and wine of Holy Communion, we experience something precious and life-giving. We are strengthened for the journey, our focus is sharpened, and we are reminded of God’s many good gifts. In our life together we affirm our abundance rather than fear our scarcity. (Photo: Katrina L, Creative Commons)
