April 6, 2025 Isaiah 43:16-21; John 12:1-8 Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old. I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? In our reading, something new is about to happen, something will change. The old things should not be remembered, the former things forgotten. The Book of…

March 15, 2025 Luke 1:26-38 Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?” When you heard this reading this morning, perhaps you thought to yourselves, why exactly are we listening to a Christmas reading? Mary hearing about her pending and unexpected pregnancy. But there is a reason. We are in the month of April. Count nine…

March 16, 2025 Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18; Luke 13:31-35 On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates….” We hear about covenants frequently in the Bible, even though that word is not always used. Sometimes it is mentioned in terms of statutes…

March 2, 2025 Exodus 34:29-35; Luke 9:28-36 When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, the skin of his face was shining, and they were afraid to come near him. Moses had been atop Mount Sinai speaking with God. The mountain was sacred because it shone with divine light and Moses had climbed up into that light. He comes down resplendent, much…

February 23, 2025 Genesis 45:3-11, 15; Luke 6:27-38 Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you. This formula is common within Jesus’ teachings. By inverting expectations, the disciples were being asked to move away from traditional ideas. Religious…

Luke 6:17-26 He came down with them and stood on a level place with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the coast of Tyre and Sidon. They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases, and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. And everyone…

February 2, 2025 1 Corinthians 13:1-13; Luke 4:21-30 Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.…

January 26, 2025 Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10; Luke 4:14-21 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. I…

January 19, 2025 Isaiah 62:1-5; John 2:1-11 “Everyone serves the good wine first and then the inferior wine after the guests have become drunk. But you have kept the good wine until now.” I have always loved that line. I love it because it is unexpected. I love it because it is basically a joke smack dab in the middle of the…

January 12, 2025 Isaiah 43:1-7; Luke 3:15-17, 21-22 John answered all of them by saying, “I baptize you with water, but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the strap of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire…” John the Baptist was in many respects a precursor to Jesus.…