Easter Day: First Reading, Acts 10:34-43 The title above actually bodes better for the text just preceding what we are considering, but it is so integral to our text that it must be included. And the title is a good way to make connections. “Type and Shadow.” One of my favorite ways...
Palm Sunday Procession: John 12:12-19 Well it’s here. The week of weeks. The week of our Lord’s Passion. And I want to say that in the most important ways it is absolutely no different than any other year. Why? Because, as much we love the special gatherings, music and readings of...
Palm Sunday: Epistle, Philippians 2:5-11 Holy ground. Whenever we open our Bibles our hands are moving the soil of holy ground. But the epistle lesson for this weekend? Wow! Almost everyone agrees what Paul composes here is one of the earliest of Christian hymns. And the subject matter is...
Palm Sunday OT, Isaiah 50:4-9a Back to Isaiah. Where last week we were walking just after one of the “Servant Songs,” this week we are right in the middle of one. Think with me. Some 700 years before the birth of our Savior, God through Isaiah is concerned with giving his OT people...
Lent 5: Holy Gospel, John 11:1-45 One of the most poignant accounts in all of Holy Scripture comes from John in chapter 11 of his gospel. It is familiar territory for lovers of the Bible for several reasons, chief of which may be that Jesus displays His power of death in the raising of his dear...
Lent 5, Epistle, Romans 8:1-11 What is it like to live in fear of a judge’s descending gavel? What is it like to realize that your future (the big picture) is all in someone else’s hands and all the scales are tipped against you? What is it to really grasp that you are GUILTY? Well...
Lent 5: OT, Ezekiel 37:1-14 Everyone knows this one. Well almost everyone. And most people know this prophetic account not from the Bible, but from a Bible SONG. You know, “the toe bone’s connected to the foot bone, etc.” It is a great tune alright, but of course the lesson...
Light it Up! Lent 4: Epistle, Ephesians 5:8-14 It isn’t often that all three lectionary readings in one day have a common thread. This Sunday they do. Light, Sight, Change and Clear Vision. We can find elements in all our stops this week. In our epistle reading the great apostle points...
“While it is Day” Lent 4: Gospel, John 9:1-41 When are you usually busy? When do you do the stuff of life? For most of us, apart from third-shifters and the occasional night owl, we work while the sun is up. Or at least before all its residual light is extinguished for the day. Why...
Four “Servant Songs” mark the later chapters of Isaiah, 42:1-9; 49:1-13; 50:4-11 and 52:13-53:12. It was 700 years before the birth of the Savior that Isaiah penned these verses highlighting the person and mission of a virgin-born King as Messiah of Israel. Each is a bit different in...
