Questions for a Picnic

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Questions for a Picnic

30 Jul 2014

Eighth Sunday after Pentecost
Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Isaiah 55:1-5
Romans 8:35-39 OR 9:1-5
Matthew 14:13-21

What does is mean to be fed, to not know when or how our bodily needs will be met, yet to wait in confidence that food will come? How do we grow so confident of being fed – and fed well – that we follow Christ into the desert? What do we learn from having our dependence on the grace and love of another made so obvious, so public?

Why was the story of the feeding of the five thousand (“not counting women and children”) so important to the early church that it appears in all four gospels, with a reprise – for four thousand – in Mark and Matthew? What are we to learn from such unexpected abundance? Why are being taught and being fed central acts of Christian worship? Read more

Posted in Lectionary Reflections - Tags: abundance, feeding, food, grace, witness

[ Posted in Lectionary Reflections | Tags: abundance, feeding, food, grace, witness ]

Rejoice! Our Work Has Just Begun!

by Brian Volck

27 Mar 2013

Easter Sunday

Acts 10:34-43
Ps 118
Col 3:1-4 OR 1 Cor 5:6-8 OR 1 Cor 15:19-26
Jn 20:1-9 OR Lk 24:1-12

We didn’t expect this. No matter how many times we’re told the story, we never do. Like Hazel Motes in Flannery O’Connor’s Wise Blood, most of us shout to the world through our attitudes and actions – if not necessarily with words – that, “I’m a member and preacher to that church where the blind don’t see and the lame don’t walk and what’s dead stays that way.” Read more

Posted in Lectionary Reflections - Tags: cross, discipleship, easter, grace, Jesus, rejoice, resurrection, witness, work

[ Posted in Lectionary Reflections | Tags: cross, discipleship, easter, grace, Jesus, rejoice, resurrection, witness, work ]

A Multitude of Ruptures

by Jim McCoy

19 Dec 2012

Fourth Sunday of Advent

Luke 1:46-55

“A Christian’s authenticity is shown in the difficult hours…. And by difficult hour, I mean those circumstances in which following the gospel supposes a multitude of ruptures with the tranquility of an order that has been set up against or apart from the gospel.”
- Oscar Romero, The Violence of Love

The word “preachy” has never been a complimentary term, even less so these days. The ministers rightly highlighted in the national news who have been doing their vital and admirable work are described as “compassionate, not preachy.” Those of us who not only have to preach but believe we should preach have been faced with how in God’s name do we preach the last two Sundays of Advent 2012, and how to do so in such a way in which compassion and preaching are not pitted against each other. Read more

Posted in Lectionary Reflections - Tags: advent, Annunication, magnificat, Mary, Oscar Romero, prophecy, violence, witness

[ Posted in Lectionary Reflections | Tags: advent, Annunication, magnificat, Mary, Oscar Romero, prophecy, violence, witness ]

Outside the Inn-siders

by Kyle Childress

5 Dec 2012

Second Sunday of Advent

Luke 3: 1-6

The word of God came to John out in the wilderness, so says Luke. After giving us the names and offices of the powerful in his day – Tiberius Caesar, Governor Pontius Pilate of Judea, Herod tetrarch of Galilee, Philip tetrarch of Ituraea and Trachonitis, Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, and Annas and Caiaphas the high priests – Luke says the word of God comes to none of them. Bypassing the centers of power, the word comes to one outside. Read more

Posted in Lectionary Reflections - Tags: advent, empire, John the Baptist, power, repentance, Thomas Merton, witness

[ Posted in Lectionary Reflections | Tags: advent, empire, John the Baptist, power, repentance, Thomas Merton, witness ]

The Heart of the Matter

by Heather Carlson

30 Aug 2012

Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time

Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

The Pharisees have travelled from Jerusalem out to the region of Lake Galilee to find Jesus, but this is not a spiritual pilgrimage. We quickly discover they have come to find fault: “Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?” Isn’t it interesting that the accusation is not leveled at Jesus himself, whom we might assume was performing all of the rituals the Pharisees were so focused on?

But, before we get to Jesus’ response, we need to pause and really hear the Pharisees. Read more

Posted in Lectionary Reflections - Tags: community, defilement, hypocrisy, practices, purity, rituals, transformation, vulnerability, witness

[ Posted in Lectionary Reflections | Tags: community, defilement, hypocrisy, practices, purity, rituals, transformation, vulnerability, witness ]