Living the Lectionary

  Isaiah 40:1-11 “Comfort, comfort” is a doubly welcome word when it feels like you’ve paid double for whatever it was that required you to ...

Ephesians 1:15-23 Paul writes more run on sentences than I do and sometimes his thoughts and mine can be lost in the language, so let me kee...

Psalm 90:1-7 I can’t read psalm 95 without thinking of the Venite from the Office of Matins in the Lutheran hymnal of my youth. (The 1941 Lu...

                            Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24 The Lord God is critical of what seems to come naturally to sheep - pushing with flank a...

                                     Psalm 90:1-8, 12 The Lord “our refuge from one generation to another” also knows our secret sins. No wo...

                                      Zephaniah 1:7, 12-28 Zephaniah was very popular with the “Save Fort Worth” people that used to spend t...

                                       Ain Vares Art Matthew 25:1-13 I think the parable of the wise and foolish bridesmaids should be calle...

                            Psalm 70 The psalmist hopes that his rescue will be pleasing to the Lord which displays a radical confidence in ...

                                        Amos 5:18-24 This text should bring a permanent ceasefire to the worship wars that often consume the...

                              Matthew 5:1-12 “Blessed are those” becomes “blessed are you” when you live the Beatitudes. By that I mean the ...

                              Revelation 7:9-17 These words were written to encourage and comfort people who were suffering terribly for the...

                                     John 8:31-36 Maybe if I knew what my “we are descendants of Abraham” was I would know what keeps me fro...

                                    Romans 3:19-28 God is the one who is just and the one who justifies; period, end of sentence. So why do ...

                                   Psalm 46 To “be still” in the presence of shaking earth, falling mountains and roaring seas is not the na...

Jeremiah 31:31-34 When will the “days are surely coming” finally get here? I know some will quickly point out “the days are surely coming” c...

                                        Matthew 22:15-22 You can’t trap Jesus. This text is not about taxes. There are no options save death...

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

                                            Psalm 96:1-13 What a lovely coincidence! I just did Psalm 96 this morning for my FB live devotio...

  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 th...

                                                       Philippians 4:1-9 Paul writing from prison encourages the Philippians with a lovely l...