Living the Lectionary

  Philemon At some point during its history the church decided a short personal correspondence was worth including in the collection that wo...

Psalm 1 The law of the Lord, likened to water by which trees are planted and so thrive, is not to be understood as simply obeying the comman...

  Deuteronomy 30:15-20 If it were as simple as choosing between life and death, prosperity and adversity we’d all be “living large.” But to ...

Luke 14:1, 7-14 One of the pre-pandemic traditions for our Room in the Inn ministry was to take our guests to the Golden Corral. As  I'v...

Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16 When the human heart is healed by hospitality the angels are entertained and in our restoration they rejoice. The hosp...

Psalm 112 Evil tidings tend to strike fear into the heart, whether global as in warming or war, or closer to home as in loss of health or em...

Proverbs 25:6-7 The first thing to say is that whatever we say about this proverb it was obviously written to people who had the ability to ...

  Luke 14:1, 7-14 Jesus ate and drank with Pharisees as much as he did with tax collectors and though they would not eat and drink with each...

  Psalm 103:1-8 The “all that is within me” (or you for that matter) includes that which is less than praiseworthy so how can the “all of me...

Luke 12:49-56 This is not a “What a friend we have in Jesus” Jesus text, but then Jesus is more complicated than any single hymn or Gospel t...

  Hebrews 11:29-12:2 The great cloud of witnesses commended to us for their ability to endure were less than perfect examples of faithful wi...

Psalm 82 God doesn't care about the poor because they are poor but because they are people and God loves people. The trouble is people s...

Jeremiah 23:23-29 The dreaming prophets were good at prophesying pleasantries to the people because the truth would not have been well recei...

Luke 12:32-40 This is where God’s “trust me” rubber hits the road. It is all well and good when “trust me” means the capital M me does the h...

Hebrews 11:1-16 The trust in me theme of Pentecost 12c continues with what must be acknowledged as the trust proof text. Faith “the assuranc...

  Psalm 33:12-22 Psalm 33 continues the “trust me” theme of Genesis 15. Though kings trust in the size of their army and warriors the size o...

Genesis 15:1-6 Confirming the covenant by looking at stars too numerous to count is hardly proof of the promise. But that is the way it has ...

  Luke 12:13-21 Someone in the crowd was trying to triangulate Jesus, who knows a thing or two about healthy relationships between three per...

  Luke 11:1-13 “Teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” Praying was not new to the disciples who as Jews would have done so religio...

Colossians 2:6-19 The rulers and authorities intended to make a public example of Jesus by nailing him to a cross. But what rulers intended ...