Pentecost A2023 Acts 2:1-21, 1 Corinthians 12:3b-13 Pentecost makes me giggle. As Lutherans, we come into the worship space, pleasant and chatting with our neighbors and nicely dressed. When the prelude music concludes and I stand, the room obediently hushes. …
Easter 7A2023 John 17:1-11 Today, Jesus prays for the disciples. It’s Maundy Thursday, and before Jesus starts teaching and praying, he washes the disciples’ feet. Just a chapter later, Jesus will be betrayed by Judas, arrested by soldiers, and denied …
Easter 6A2023 John 14:15-21 On the night before his crucifixion, because he knows he will leave his disciples, Jesus promises to send them the spirit. You know the Spirit, Jesus says, because the Spirit abides in you, and the Spirit …
Easter 5A2023 John 14:1-14 The summer of 2014, three chaperones, me included, and 10 middle school and high school youth piled into two vans and drove from Phoenix to a Lutheran Bible camp outside Eugene, Oregon. On our way to …
Easter 4A2023 John 10:1-10 Jesus said: I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. All I’ve got this morning is testimony. I know what it’s like to not have abundant life, and I bet you do too. …
Easter 3A2023 Luke 24:13-35 For decades, whenever I have read this “Walk to Emmaus” gospel story, all I can think is: Jesus is a stranger. Cleopas and his unnamed friend, followers of Jesus, are walking from Jerusalem to Emmaus on …
Easter A2023 Matthew 28:1-10 Peter, James, and John, Matthew, Simon, and Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, and Thomas, James son of Alphaeus and Thaddaeus all desert Jesus and flee at his arrest. Judas, of course, betrays Jesus. The festival crowd gathered in …
Easter Vigil A2023 John 20:1-18 It’s not very often I am up at dawn though, tomorrow, I will have the opportunity. When we rise in darkness, the inky blackness can fool us into thinking it’s still the middle of the …
Maundy Thursday A2023 John 13:1-17, 31b-35 In a poem entitled Fear, poet Kahlil Gibran writes: It is said that before entering the sea a river trembles with fear. She looks back at the path she has traveled, from the peaks …
Palm Sunday A2023 Matthew 21:1-11 Jesus sent disciples ahead of him to secure the donkey, and word spread quickly. The crowd probably got up early to prepare. To cut branches from palm trees. To gather their friends and family. To …
Lent 5A2023 Ezekiel 37:1-14 The hand of the Lord came upon me, and he brought me out by the spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. Thus begins …
Lent 4A2023 John 9:1-41 Jesus encounters a man born blind. Expressly to reveal God’s work in him, Jesus spits on the ground, makes mud, spreads it on the man’s eyes, and tells him to go wash in the pool of …