Living the Lectionary

The Calvary Café opened in the fall of 1999 but it didn’t take off until the spring of 2000. It was Thyme marinated Pork Loin ...

Mark 7:1-23 Thank God we’re back to the Gospel of Mark. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not into gluten free Gospels but five weeks of bread, e...

Lisa and Josh and 100 bales of hay James 1:17-27 Martin Luther called James “an epistle of straw” for its less than solid declaration...

Psalm 15 So I guess verse 5a (do not lend money at interest) means all the bankers are out of luck when it comes to real estate on the ...

Deuteronomy 4:1-9 It sounds fairly straightforward. Obey and live or don’t and die. For a while it was as simple as that. But then the...

I’m blogging from a Starbucks on 55 th and University in Chicago, Illinois. Later this afternoon I’ll have the privilege of preaching at ...

John 6:56-69 By the end of chapter six the five thousand fed on loaves and fishes have gone home and “many of his disciples” desert him...

Ephesians 6:10-20 Being strong in the Lord is not the same thing as being strong. In fact the only way to be strong in the strength of ...

Psalm 34:15-22 Psalm 34 declares that even the name of those who do evil will be blotted out from the face of the earth while the Lord ...

Joshua 24:1-18 “Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other god’s” turns out to not be too far from them at all. ...

Twenty-one years ago Lisa and I bound our lives together “in freedom and joy” in the Trinity Lutheran Seminary Chapel. The Reverend Dr. Wa...

John 6:51-58 This is the Gospel of John’s take on what Jesus meant the meal to be. More than a ritualized remembrance, the living bread...

Ephesians 5:15-20 If the days were evil when the apostle Paul wrote these words to the Ephesians what are they now?  Truth is every age ...

Psalm 34:9-14 Pleasure and prosperity comes from pursuing peace. We tend to equate pleasure and prosperity with possessions, or at least...

Proverbs 9:1-6 Wisdom called to me and invited me in for a body works plus abs class at the West 7 th   Street LA Fitness (where the pret...

I delivered a load of Pastor Phil's Holy S##t to the   Southside Community Garden   this morning. The garden provides produce for th...

John 35:41-51 “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know?” It is a legitimate question for those in the cro...

Ephesians 4:25-5:2 Falsehood is a hard thing to put away since it is so deceptive and evil speech often comes out of our mouths masquerad...

Psalm 34:1-8 I've been delivered more than once from “all my terrors” and saved from more “all my troubles” than I care to count so...

1 Kings 19:4-8 Elijah is despairing under the solitary broom tree because Queen Jezebel is determined to kill him, which makes sense be...