Living the Lectionary

Psalm 34:1-10 Delivered from terrors and saved from troubles the psalmist rejoices in the goodness of the Lord. Sometimes the only way o...

Revelation 7:9-17 These words were written to encourage and comfort people who were suffering terribly for the sake of the faith. Let’s pu...

Jeremiah 31:31-34 The days are surely coming… when Lutherans might give up celebrating Reformation Sunday because it’s all about us and ...

1 Thessalonians 1:1-10   One reason Paul may be continually thankful for the church of the Thessalonians is because he is continually tr...

Isaiah 45:1-7 Cyrus the Great was good to all the gods who had been displaced by the Babylonians returning  “the images of the gods… to ...

Matthew 22:1-14 The interesting twist to “many are invited but few are chosen” is that the choice belongs to the invited. Granted the poo...

Philippians 4:1-9 Writing from prison Paul encourages the Philippians with a lovely laundry list of “whatever is” think on these things w...

Psalm 23 The table prepared is in the presence of enemies which makes one wonder about the relative calm of green pastures and quiet ...

Isaiah 25:1-9 When the city is reduced to rubble and the fortified town turned into a ruin then the strong will honor God and the ruthless...

Matthew 21:33-46 Since the text says Jesus is talking about “them” we can safely assume he is not talking about “us .” But then the living...

Philippians 3:4-14 Like the apostle Paul I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh. Born to Lutheran educators, baptized in my firs...

Psalm 80:7-15 The psalmist must not have read Isaiah who lays the blame for broken walls on the “pleasant planting” that produced sour gra...

Isaiah 5:1-7 God’s lament sounds familiar because God’s sad song is so often ours as well. We invest time and energy and emotion into rela...

Matthew 21:23-32   The chief priests and elders of the people are stuck between a rock and a hard place by Jesus’ question but will come...

Philippians 2:1-13 The whole of the scriptures is expressed in Philippians 2:5-11 and if all we had was this ancient hymn it would be eno...

Psalm 25:1-9 David trusts that the rebellious sins of his youth will not be remembered by the Lord and I have no doubt that the same appli...

Ezekiel 18:1-4; 25-32 Apparently the prophet is not familiar with family systems theory. The sins of the parents are always visited upo...

Matthew 20:1-16 The kingdom of heaven is a contradiction of the more common kingdom where fair play is measured by survival of the fittest...

Philippians 1:20-30 To live is Christ. To die is gain. We tend to believe these two statements in reverse. To live is gain. To die is C...

Psalm 145:1-8 “One generation commends your works to another” is the way the faith has been passed down through the ages so that the anci...