Moving Forward - Weekly Lectionary Podcast

Gen 18:1-10; Psa 15; Luke 10:38-42 - You can tell a lot about someone by who her friends are, right? What is she like, what is she interested in, all that. Well, who does God choose as friends? The lectionary readings this week all point to the people who God likes to hang around with. They all have in common a desire to be welcoming and learn from God. Side note - sorry for the terrible audio thi...

Deut 30:9-14; Col 1:1-14; Luke 10:25-37 Did you grow up, like I did, hearing that trying to do the right thing, or act righteously or justly was somehow rejecting grace? Yuck, right? Even a casual read of almost every full page of the Bible contains instructions to respond to God's love and grace with love and grace of our own - manifested in acts of faithfulness and neighbor love. You really have...

Isaiah 66:10-14, & Luke 10:1-11, 16-20 Jesus presents a pretty stark version of how humans are defined in this week's readings. "Children of Peace" welcome strangers/foreigners without resources - such as folks sent from out of town without purses. Children of Violence are known for not welcoming foreigners. Jesus says for those who don't welcome poor strangers, it would have been better for t...

1 Kings 19:15-16, 19-21 & Luke 9:51-62: Do you ever wonder, "Why are THESE the folks who were chosen for that task?" Would it make more sense to maybe choose someone else for a specific job or role? This week, we have a few stories of God choosing some strange recruits.

Isaiah 65:1-9 & Luke 8:26-39: The lectionary passages this week offer stories of God showing up before people even know how or what to ask.

Prov 8:1-4, 22-31 & John 16:12-15 - For the Sunday in which the Church most closely examines God's relationship with Godself, let's take some time to refresh our pneumatology

Gen 11:1-9; Acts 2:1-21 and John 14:8-17: Humans can unify around all sorts of things: fear, hate, love, model railroading... for Pentecost Sunday, we explore some of the motivations for unity in the Biblical texts, and why God calls us to speak unified words.

Acts 16:16-34 & John 17:20-26 - How are Paul's actions with an enslaved, possessed woman and the jailer who tortured him an answer to Jesus' prayer? Jesus prays for unity that will testify to Jesus' salvific mission. It so weirds out the Romans that they cannot help but notice that something strange is going on. Strange unity!

Acts 16:9-15; Psa 67; Rev 21:10, 22-22:5; John 14:23-29: There are lots of things that we get to fight about with regard to Scripture (if we want to). The Gospel triumphing over old national or citizenship statuses is simply not one of them. Citizenship in the Kingdom of God has to mean more than whatever other loyalties we have. And love of neighbor must triumph over whatever prejudices or biases...

Acts 11:1-18; Rev 21:1-6 & John 13:31-35 Few fights are as intense as those between people who mostly agree, right? Something about religion turns neighbors into, well, bad neighbors all too often. This week, the lectionary texts tell tales of folks... getting along, working together and including folks who are different than them. I don't know about you, but I need those stories right now.

Acts 9:36-43; Psalm 23; Rev 7:9-17 & John 10:22-30 Look, let's not kid ourselves, most of us were not members of Jesus' original flock. We get to be Acts 10 followers, right? So, on this Good Shepherd Sunday, let's pause, and reflect with humility and gratitude on Jesus adding sheep of other pastures - John 20:16. (that's us!).

Acts 9:1-6; Rev 5:11-14; John 21:1-19 - I don't know about you, but I spend a lot more time thinking about how to follow Jesus than I do in thinking about how to worship Jesus. Revelation 5, and someone of wife's favorite music, offer a useful corrective.

Acts 5:27-32 & John 20:19-31 - We hear it all the time: "When God Closes a Door, God opens a window..." God opening and closing doors as a metaphor is both ancient and Biblical. What do the lectionary readings have to say about Jesus and doors? And why is knowing the difference between Pharisees and Sadducees so important? [I'm looking at you, "King of Kings" movie...]

Acts 10:34-43 & John 20:1-18 - One of my favorite aspects of Bible is that there were multiple human authors inspired to write to multiple human audiences. We have multiple voices and multiple perspectives that all testify to God's work in the world. Jesus' resurrection is no exception. I love that Mary, Peter, John, the angels and Jesus all notice differently, and that we are allowed to see t...

Luke 22:14-23:56 - I don't know about y'all, but sometimes it feels like words just don't have meanings anymore. Words like "justice," "save," "defend," and "fix" are used to describe injustice, persecution, abandoning and ruining. Folks in power throwing around worthless words is nothing new, though. In fact, in addition to everything else that Jesus endured in the Passion account, worthless word...

Isaiah 43:16-21; Psa 126; Phil 3:4b-14; John 12:1-8 - How do we intentionally forget? Think of a pink gorilla - now, stop thinking about it! How well does that work? And yet, forgetting can be healthy, and necessary for moving on in the present and future. The lectionary texts this week have 4 examples of mentally moving on when something new comes along.

Joshua 5:9-12; 2 Cor 5:16-21 & Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32: Sometimes we've gotta take the spacewalk - completely untether from everything, let go, and jump off toward the new. Spring is a good time to think about this. In the lectionary readings for the week, we have three stories of letting go of what is past, and moving into the future. And, I remember the first time I ate carob pods...

1 Cor 10:1-13; Luke 13:1-9 Repenting isn't a game. We can enjoy grace all we want [and we should!], but God's goals don't stop there. God wants transformed humans who are deeply committed to learning how to love each other better every day. Jesus and Paul use current events and ancient stories to incite their audiences to repent. now.

Luke 13:31-35 - Jesus makes a pretty stark comparison between himself and Herod, using two female animals. Those who ruthlessly pursue and then cling to power are like vixens who search for chicks to devour. Jesus is like a mother hen, who only wants to gather and protect her chicks. Jesus insists that we reflect on who we trust ourselves with and who we should follow.

Deut 26:1-11; Rom 10:8b-13; Luke 4:1-13. Oh boy, this one is near and dear to me. Repeated stories, prioritizing books of Law, holiday genesis, foreigner love, redemptive empathy... Come and learn why Deuteronomy is one of God's favorite books of the Bible, and can be yours too!

Exodus 34:29-35; 2 Cor 3:12-4:2; Luke 9:28-36 I'm tempted to quote the intro to the Reel World here... After the golden calf episode, after the sin in Eden, after the relationship fell apart, after we saw who Jesus really was, after the veil slips or the mask comes off, it can be difficult to know what to do next or where to go. It's temping to try to put the veil right back, or find a new mask. B...

Gen 43:3-11; 1 Cor 15:35-38, 42-50; Luke 6:27-38 - Looking at Judah's moral arc - is he an inhumane monster, a practical realist just trying to do the best he can in a bad situation, or the saint of the story who sets things right? Yes, all of the above. Just like us, Judah has to undergo a sort of death to self so that he can become who God and his family want and need him to become. In his story...

Jeremiah 17:5-10; 1 Cor 15:12-20; Luke 6:17-26. Do our human ideas get in the way of what God is actually doing? Sure! All the time! Just about everyone in the Bible who has an encounter with God is surprised about the direction it goes! The readings for this week off guidance on how to hang on loosely to what we think we know and to follow God into unfamiliar directions.

Isaiah 6:1-8; 1 Cor 15:1-11; Luke 5:1-11 - There's this thought that flows throughout the Bible that no one may see God and live, and yet, Adam and Eve; Abraham and Sarah; Hagar; Moses; the Sanhedrin on Sinai; Isaiah; Ezekiel and several others all see God and live. The imbalance between holy and unholy is indeed a problem. But God has a solution for that - grace, followed by repentance. The lecti...

1 Cor 13:1-13 & Luke 4:21-30 Sometimes it's difficult to be an adult about things. When someone has what we want but don't have, whether it is love, a sweet car, a better job, or peace, it can make us mad. It happened in Corinth and in Nazareth, and I'm pretty sure it happens in our homes and halls of power. The answer is not to grab everything we can. Instead, God calls us to grow up and act...