Living the Lectionary

Mark 1:21-28 The unclean spirit who cries out in the synagogue obeys Jesus and comes out of the man. The scribes reject Jesus and on mor...

1 Corinthians 8:1-13 Differences in theology and practice rarely lead one side to change behavior so as not to offend the other. The mor...

Psalm 111 The gracious and merciful Lord is ever mindful of the covenant which is to say God remembers us even if we forget to give than...

Deuteronomy 18:15-20 Jesus will run into the problem of a prophet raised up “from among your own people” as a “prophet is not without ho...

Mark 1:14-20 Jesus has a one sentence sermon that says it all. The time is fulfilled – which means the future has come into the present...

1 Corinthians 7:21-31 I don’t want to question the Apostle Paul’s timeline but did he believe “the appointed time has grown short” would ...

Psalm 62:5-12 Waiting in silence is not something that comes naturally to most, especially when unsteady circumstances call for a rock...

Jonah 3:1-10 God’s mind was changed but Jonah’s was not. In the beginning of the story Jonah tries to avoid going to Nineveh because he ...

John 1:43-51 Apparently Nathaniel’s disparaging remark about Nazareth is just plain old prejudice and doesn't count as deceit. Or it ...

1 Corinthians 6:11-20 Corinth was the “sin city” of the 1 st century and the Christians living there struggled to be “in the world but ...

Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18 I’m not feeling very “marvelously made” as the flu bug Grinch that stole my Christmas Eve is still messing with my ...

1 Samuel 3:1-20 The call of Samuel is a sad story for Eli but then his response to the word Samuel received indicates Eli knew it was com...

Mark 1:4-11 I've always thought the Holy Spirit descending like a dove was an odd way for the Holy Spirit to appear. Some dove lov...

Acts 19:1-7 The book of Acts makes it sound as easy as 1-2-3. All it takes is a one sentence explanation and these disciples of John wh...

Psalm 29 Ascribe to the Lord stock show weather. It’s such a common phenomenon in Fort Worth, Texas this time of year that all you have ...

Genesis 1:1-5 The debate about creation tends to focus on how long it took to get the formless void to take the shape we recognize. Trut...

John 1:1-18 There are plenty of small g gods who have become flesh and walked among us but they tend to behave like we do which is why w...

Ephesians 1:3-14 It is one thing to be chosen but being chosen by God before the beginning of time is on a completely different scale. Tr...

Psalm 147:12-20 The law of the Lord was a gift to Jacob and Israel even if they failed to abide by all its decrees. We tend to think of l...

Jeremiah 31:7-14 Jeremiah, the weeping prophet, proclaims a different sort of weeping for the “great company” destined to return to Zion...