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First he said, “Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them” (although the law required them to be made). Then he said, “Here I am, I have come to do your will.” He sets aside the first to establish the second. And it is by God’s will that we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all [Hebrews 10:8-10]. The Lectionary committee showed particular skill in joining the readings for this upcoming Sunday, the Fourth Sunday of Advent (RCL, Year C). For example, the Psalter reading, Psalm 80:1-7, with its descriptive metaphors and…

Rejoice in the Lord always; I will say it again, Rejoice! Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God [Philippians 4:4-6]. Waiting can be quite difficult for many, if not most of us. When I want to draw upon my strongest feelings about waiting, I reflect back to my freshman and sophomore years at Wake Forest, now more than 50 years ago. Then, before the completion of I-85 and the rest of the interstate highway system, it took me almost six hours to drive from Wake…

“By the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high will break upon us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace” [Luke 1:78-79]. In Luke 1:68-79, the first of two Gospel readings appointed for this upcoming Sunday, the second Sunday of Advent RCL, Year C, Yahweh—God of the Impossible—is at it again. And yet, if we didn’t already know important parts of the story, we might think that nothing truly special is going on. To be sure, if we read the verses that precede this week’s lesson, we’d see that a…

Then he told them a parable: “Look at the fig tree and all the trees; as soon as they sprout leaves you can see for yourselves and know that summer is already near. So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near …. Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life, and that day catch you unexpectedly, like a trap. For it will come upon all who live on the face of the whole earth [Luke 21:29-31, 34-35]. Having some soon-to-expire—thank you very much, pandemic—“Marriott time” at our…

“What is truth?” retorted Pilate. With this he went out again to the Jews gathered there and said, “I find no basis for a charge against him” [John 18:38]. This upcoming Sunday, many of our congregations will observe a special annual liturgical event: the Feast of Christ the King. The observance was initiated by Pope Pius XI in 1925; its “Roman” origins being sufficient to banish it from some important segments of American Protestantism, notwithstanding the day’s important theological points. Pius XI sought to warn the church against the rampant secularism that he saw in “modern” society. He wrote that he feared all too many so-called Christians had chosen to…

Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who has promised is faithful. And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching [Hebrews 10:23-25]. Earlier this year, our Carolina Arbors Bible Study spent four months—March through early July—moving through Hebrews. It’s a New Testament epistle that generally gets short shrift in many of our congregations. One of the first things we learned is that the “Letter to the Hebrews” isn’t much like the other…

And the women said to Naomi, “Blessed is the LORD, Who has not deprived you of a redeemer today, and let his name be proclaimed in Israel” [Ruth 4:14]. As I mentioned last week, as we journey toward the end of the church year, the Revised Common Lectionary provides us with two OT readings from the often overlooked book of Ruth. Last week, we looked at the familiar “Whither thou goest” passage [Ruth 1:16, KJV]. We observed that Ruth clung to Naomi and determined to accompany her back to Naomi’s hometown of Bethlehem in spite of the fact that Ruth—a Moabite—might not be welcomed there. This week the Lectionary appoints…

But Ruth said, “…. Where you go, I will go; Where you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die, I will die—there will I be buried. May the LORD do thus and so to me, and more as well, if even death parts me from you!” When Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her, she said no more to her [Ruth 1:16b-18]. For the next two Sundays, the Revised Common Lectionary appoints two segments of text from the short book of Ruth as the OT readings. As you know, the book of Ruth is just four…

  Jesus stood still and said, “Call him here.” And they called the blind man, saying to him, “Take courage; get up, he is calling you.” So throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus [Mark 10:49-50]. For years now, I’ve been captivated by the story of blind Bartimaeus. It’s the Gospel reading appointed for this upcoming Sunday [Mark 10:46-52, the Twenty-second Sunday after Pentecost, RCL, Year B]. Luke offers us a similar story [Luke 18:35-43], albeit with fewer details. For example, in the Lukan passage, Bartimaeus is unnamed. I’ve sometimes pictured what might have gone through Bartimaeus’ mind as Jesus approached him on that day so…

We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all [Isaiah 53:6]. Barrels of ink have been spilled in efforts to provide a specific identity for the Suffering Servant described in Isaiah 53:4-12 [the OT reading appointed for this upcoming Sunday, the Twenty-first Sunday after Pentecost, RCL, Year B]. Today, most Christians see the passage clearly as a foreshadowing of Christ. We read these verses, see that the Servant was “despised and rejected, a man of sorrow and acquainted with grief” [loose translation of Isaiah 53:3], recall the beautiful, familiar words from…