Lection Reflections

A collection of 49 posts

Lection Reflections

Are You Wealthy Toward God?

(a Lection Reflection on Luke 12: 13-21) There's an old joke about sermon writing that references "three points and a poem." If you're working on a sermon, I don't have a poem for you -- although there are some on the site

Lection Reflections

Amos 8, the Headlines, the System, and Us

(A Lection Reflection on Amos 8, Psalm 15, and Psalm 52) Have you read this week's lections yet? No? OK, then -- here is the link to the online lectionary provided by the Vanderbilt Divinity Library. Be sure to read Amos and the two Psalms. I'll wait

Lection Reflections

Are You That Guy?

I love reading spy thrillers. I like following all the plots and characters, I like the suspense, I like the twists and turns of the story. And, I like a good hero. Why? Because I imagine myself as the hero. As Bruce Willis said in Die Hard 4, I like

Lection Reflections

Is Your Pride Godly?

(A Lection Reflection on Luke 10 and Galatians 6) If you were to plan a sermon on pride in most churches, the thought bubbles above the listeners would look like this: "Pride. Root of the seven deadly sins. God hates it. Bad stuff. Got it." <brain off&

Lection Reflections

"A Little Lower than God" -- Really?

There is a Bible study group that meets in a coffee shop I frequent. They sit at a long table near an easy chair where I like to relax, drink my coffee, and read the morning paper or write. From the first time I saw them, I suspected we might

Lection Reflections

Pentecost -- Who Was There, and Why Do You Care?

Let's play a game. I'm going to write a phrase, and you take a snapshot of the picture that pops up in your mind when you see it. Ready? OK -- just highlight the space after the parens with your mouse: (highlight with mouse -->) Gathered believers

Lection Reflections

Tough Verses in John 17

(A Lection Reflection on John 17: 20-22) OK, let's get something on the table right up front: if you want to go beyond just the devotional, then some passages are hard. They raise issues of Christology and the nature of humankind that are both complex and challenging.

Lection Reflections

Waiting To Be Healed -- a Lection Reflection on John 5

(A Lection Reflection on John 5: 1-9) There are events in the Bible that are so overlaid with symbolism and meaning that trying to unpack them feels like opening one of those Russian nesting doll sets: you take out the next doll, marvel at its beauty, then see that

Lection Reflections

My Sheep Hear My Voice -- Say What?

(A Lection Reflection on John 10:27) If you look up today's text on Google, you get 1.9 million hits. If you put the text in quotes ("my sheep hear my voice") you still get 1.5 million hits. That's 1,500,000

Lection Reflections

Restoration or Resurrection?

(A Lection Reflection on Easter) In another Lection Reflection, I talked a little about the scope of Easter. I made the point that Easter was more than a one-time event; it is, instead, a part of God's ongoing work in the world. God is in the business

Lection Reflections

Palm Sunday Cynics

(A Lection Reflection on Luke 19: 28-40) Fickle. Disloyal. Unreliable. I've heard my fair share of sermons and devotionals that use such terms to describe the Palm Sunday crowd. You have too. I call them Palm Sunday Cynics. "Here they are, waving palms and praising Jesus,

Lection Reflections

And It's God From the 3-Point Line!

(A Lection Reflection on Psalm 126 and Isaiah 43: 16-21) As those who know me will attest, I'm a big sports guy. My favorite sports are football and basketball, with college basketball being at the top of the list. And as you might expect, my most favorite

Lection Reflections

The Circle of Reconciliation

(A Lection Reflection on 2 Corinthians 5: 16-21) There are certain verses in the Bible that convey such an important truth that I think they ought to be automatically highlighted in every translation. We have such a verse this week, with a truth so unusual and different that it

Lection Reflections

Hard Truths

(A Lection Reflection on Luke 13:1-9) Many years ago, I heard an important truth: Do not turn a parable into an allegory. I suspect that I violated that rule in an earlier essay I wrote on the Fig Tree and the Gardener, so today I want to take

Lection Reflections

Where Are You Looking? What Do You See?

I can't do those fake 3D drawings. You know, the ones where you focus on a red dot or some such thing, and all of a sudden out pops a scene that you didn't see before. I have friends who can see it in a few

Lection Reflections

Testing God

(A Lection Reflection on Luke 4:1-12) Let me put some thoughts in front of you, and you tell me if you've heard these before: * Trust in God. * Believe God's word. * Stand on the promises of God. * Step out in faith. Sound familiar? Sure -- we&

Lection Reflections

Your Messiah Is Too Small

(A Lection Reflection on Luke 9:28-36) Years ago, J.B. Phillips wrote a wonderful little book entitled "Your God Is Too Small." In it, he posited that what many people were busy worshipping, fighting, or ignoring was in fact an idol: their own limited conception of

Lection Reflections

Rage in 60 Seconds

(A Lection Reflection on Luke 4:21-30) If you want to say something happened in an unusually short amount of time, using "in sixty seconds" seems both specific and pretty short. This post's title references, of course, the well-known Nicolas Cage film Gone in

Lection Reflections

What Was God Thinking?

A Lection Reflection on Psalm 8 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established; what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them? Yet you have made them a little lower

Lection Reflections

Tying the Hands of God

If you grew up going to some sort of church Bible class, you probably remember getting old enough to ask those questions that drive the teacher crazy: Could God make something so big he couldn't pick it up? If God can do anything, could he destroy himself? Nothing blows up a class faster than a good

Lection Reflections

Is God a Communist?

Who said this? > Nothing left over to the one with the most, > Nothing lacking to the one with the least. Are you sitting there, saying to yourself "wow, that sure sounds like Marx. Didn't I read that in college?" Well, sort of, but not exactly. Here is the Karl Marx quote [https://en.wikipedia.or

Lection Reflections

Tall People and God

I'm a big fan of the early Saturday Night Live sketches (perhaps because I'm old enough to have watched them the first time they aired!). One of the great catch-phrases of those first seasons was the opening of the Weekend Update with Chevy Chase [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevy_Chase] dead-pann

Lection Reflections

"Brother, Are You Saved?"

If you were to ask most church members the most well-known verse in the Bible, they would immediately respond "John 3:16." A high percentage of them could surely quote it, as well: > For God so loved the world, that He gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever > believeth in Him should not perish,

Lection Reflections

Reflection on the Lections: Amos 8:4-7

One of this Sunday's lections [http://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/texts.php?id=280] -- Amos 8:4-7: > Hear this, you that trample on the needy, and bring to ruin the poor of the > land, saying, "When will the new moon be over so that we may sell grain; and > the sabbath, so that we may offer w