(Second Sunday of Lent, 2023) During Lent, we often talk about the wilderness as a negative place—a place of deprivation, temptation, and wandering. But in this week’s reading from Genesis, God calls Abram into the wilderness: “Go from your country . . . to the land I will show you.” I imagine Abram was terrified—not to…
Reflection on Song of Songs 4:9-15 and John 2:1-11, readings from Dr. Will Gafney’s Women’s Lectionary for the Whole Church, Year W. You can read the full sermon text here. The speaker in Song of Songs says, “how much better is your love than wine,” but Jesus’ mother knows that a wedding party can’t run on…
God tells Daughter Zion—who stands for the nation of Israel–to “make your shade like night at the height of noon” (v. 3) for the daughters of Moab. Isn’t that a beautiful image? Here in church, and maybe especially during the season of Epiphany, we like to talk a lot about darkness and light. And that’s…
Baptism is weird. And that’s as it should be. Because there really is not a logical way to do what it is we strive to do in baptism. In baptism, we are doing something physically to suggest a change in our inner, spiritual reality. According to Christian belief, the body and spirit are connected, to…
Hello, friends! I am excited to begin the Narrative Lectionary with my congregation and to share my first Narrative Lectionary post with the Rev. Gals community. I love that the NL allows us to follow the narrative arc of scripture from beginning to end—to engage with the Bible as a whole rather than just dipping…
Narrative Lectionary Companions, The first thing to note this week is that we are a long way from the golden calf! If you are using this Narrative Lectionary cycle to help people gain a better understanding of the full sweep of the biblical narrative, it might be worth mentioning that we’ve skipped over six books…
Those of us preaching the Narrative Lectionary get to hang out with the prophets for a few weeks. We’ve already encountered Samuel, Nathan, Elijah, and the “how not to be a prophet” story of Jonah. This week we come to Isaiah, whose prophetic voice echoes in much of Jesus’ teachings about the Kingdom of God.…
This piece was originally published at RevGalBlogPals on December 14, 2020. As the Narrative Lectionary moves into the Gospel of Luke, most of the people in the (virtual) pews will find themselves in more familiar territory. Mary, Gabriel, Elizabeth, “My soul magnifies the Lord.” Ahhhh. There is, I think, a temptation to relish the familiarity;…
Originally published on RevGalBlogPals, January 11, 2021. Many of the people who raided the United States capitol building last Wednesday were wearing “Jesus” t-shirts and waving Christian flags. And it is pretty obvious those people have listened to a lot of unfaithful preaching and read very little of the actual Bible. We’re in the season…
This reflection was originally posted on RevGalBlogPals on February 8, 2021. While the story of the Transfiguration is in all three Synoptic Gospels, it is only Luke who tells us what Moses and Elijah speak with Jesus about: They “were speaking of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem” (v. 31). Moses…
Spacious Faith 