RCL Reflection for the Seventh Sunday of Easter Year B, May 16, 2021
Jesus’ prayer doesn’t seek to take us out of the world in some pie-in-the-sky version of rapture. It places us squarely here in the midst of the created order, and it lets us know that the Christ is right there with us—along with God the Creator and Author of all that is.
RCL Reflection for Reformation Sunday Year A/21st Sunday after Pentecost Year A, October 25, 2020
Perhaps the reformation needed now is to use our freedom to love as Christ compels us. This love of God and neighbor is not optional; it is the very foundation of our faith and a visible, tangible sign of Christ’s body in the world. (Image: Elvert Barnes, Creative Commons)
RCL Reflection for Proper 18 (23) Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Year C, September 8, 2019
From the sound of the disciple’s job description in this week’s gospel, most of us are doomed before we ever shoulder our cross. Where’s the grace and love in that? It’s helpful to look at a wider, longer view, to grasp all of the gospel witness. As Paul would later point out, we have different callings. None of us is beyond the grip of grace. (Photo: versionz, Creative Commons)
RCL Reflection, 6th Sunday after the Epiphany, Year C, Feb. 20, 2019.
“Comfortable” and “Christianity” do not go together like bread and butter. There is, indeed, nothing comfortable at all about discipleship and the gospel. We’re a long way yet from a level playing field, my friends, but the choice to embrace radical discipleship, lavish love, and prodigal generosity is offered us anew every day. Will we choose rightly? (Photo: JESUS MAFA, Creative Commons)
RCL Reflection, 7th Sunday of Easter, Year B, May 13, 2018
Prayer works but sometimes our limited human vision can be a stumbling block, as can our fear and concerns about even how we are to pray. In this week’s gospel lesson, we get a glimpse of Jesus praying for his disciples right before he is handed over to death. It is a powerful example of the stewardship of prayer and people. (Photo: Moose 128, Creative Commons)
RCL reflection for Reformation Sunday and the 21st Sunday after Pentecost, Year A, Proper 25, Oct. 29, 2017
It’s been 500 years since Martin Luther’s 95 Theses started making the rounds, and a lot has changed and will continue to change. The church is always reforming, and so are God’s faithful people. We are called–always–to love God with every fiber of our being and our neighbor as ourselves, but how we do that involves being flexible, open to change, and willing to listen to the Holy Spirit’s movement in the world. (Photo: Keren Tan, Creative Commons)
Lectionary Reflection for the Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Year C, September 4, 2016
Mama said there’d be days like this. But weeks, or months, or even years and decades? So it goes with life and discipleship. The truth of the matter is that neither life nor discipleship is a guaranteed picnic, cakewalk, or pie-in-the-sky supper club. So take divine advice: choose life and carry on. (Photo: Akuppa John Wigham, Creative Commons)
Lectionary Reflection for the Seventh Sunday of Easter May 17, 2015 As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth. John 17:18-19 When I was growing up, a lot of the Christians […]
Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Year C, September 8, 2013
Surely Jesus is kidding, right? What’s all this talk about hating family, carrying crosses, and giving up possessions? Discipleship can’t be that hard, can it? Maybe it’s time we stopped skirting the issue and started living with the questions. (Photo: Tsahi Levent-Levi, Creative Commons)
