Reading between the lines: God told Elijah she told a widow to provide for him. That conversation is missing. The widow seems surprised by his demand, not request. Why would she do such a thing? Feed a stranger before her child? How do we tell the story in a world where some shepherds fleece their...... Read More

Update: This is the reflection for Epiphany 4 mistakenly published as Epiphany 3. In the first lesson God is made known through her fathomless love, the essence of who she is. Surprisingly for some hearers and readers, God insists that her love enfolds even ancient enemies. Further, God insists that she will not do the...... Read More

 Sermon begins about 26 minutes in. In the summer of 1968, scant months after the murder and martyrdom of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., these words from the King James translation of the Bible appeared on a tent in the Poor People’s Campaign’s Resurrection City, occupying the Mall in Washington DC: Behold, this...... Read More

Here are some texts (and a modified collect) likely to be included in future volumes of the Lectionary. Almighty God, by the hands of Miriam and Moses your servants you led your people out of slavery, and made them free at last: Grant that your church, following the example of your prophet the Rev. Dr....... Read More

Reading Jerusalem presented as God’s daughter and seeing and hearing the words, “your God is in your midst,” I can’t help but to read with early Christian writers and the continuing Church who read Mary’s pregnancy through Zephaniah’s prophecy. However, an Israelite or later Jewish reader or hearer would understand that the prophecy is about...... Read More

In the first lesson, God reveals herself and makes her glory manifest through her redemptive love for her people, expressed here through a marriage metaphor. God will lead her people and her land and be their protector. It is a patriarchal construct, particularly when read with the original masculine grammar. However, just as we have...... Read More

The 12 day Christmas party is over. But there are yet more treasures in store. Epiphany is a season of revelation. God draws back the curtain on mystery and wonder granting us a glimpse of unfolding redemption. In these lessons, devastated, conquered, ravished Jerusalem is raised up by the tender hand of God, presented here...... Read More

The Feast of the Epiphany (and the season that follows) is a festival of light. As with Advent, the season that need not be cast in binary terms of light in opposition to dark. In my preaching (and social media posting), I have observed that the light does not hate the holy luminous darkness that...... Read More

The world looks new after the dawning of Christmas Day. These lessons imagine and celebrate a new day when the world will be different. In the first lesson, there will be a great diverse and inclusive gathering. God will devote special attention to bringing back home those who have been driven away. And there will...... Read More

More Christmas! We have a Christmas triduum! (And more to come after a short interlude.) For the First Sunday After Christmas, which falls on the day after Christmas this year, Year W focuses on the human estate, the flesh in which God was pleased to dwell, our very human flesh. In the first lesson we...... Read More