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6th Sunday of Easter, May 14,2023: Acts 17:22-31; 1 Peter 3:13-22; John 14:15-21; Psalm 66:7-18 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” My first response to reading this was that this is a transactional relationship, not one of love. It continues, assuming that you do these things, then God will do these things…

Fifth Sunday of Easter: Acts 7:55-60; 1 Peter 2:2-10; John 14:1-14; Psalm 31:1-5, 15-16 “Be my strong rock, a castle to keep me safe.” The psalmist is concerned about shelter and safety, the things we hope for in the places we live. The psalmist wants a refuge to protect him. The castles that I have…

Second Sunday of Easter, April 16, 2023: Acts 2:14a,22-32; 1 Peter 1:3-9; John 20:19-31; Psalm 16 As someone who has lived their life in the northern hemisphere, Easter has always coincided with spring. The celebration of Easter, from the Alleluias and trumpets to the extravagance of flowers, has always been joyful and exuberant. But the…

Sunday of the Passion/ Palm Sunday, April 2, 2023. The Liturgy of the Palms: Matthew 21:1-11; Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29; The Liturgy of the Word: Isaiah 50:4-9a; Philippians 2:5-11; Matthew 27:11-54; Psalm 31:9-16 Today takes us from the highs of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem (but on a donkey, so don’t get too excited) to the lows…

Fifth Sunday in Lent, March 26, 2023: Ezekiel 37:1-14; Romans 8:6-11; John 11:1-45; Psalm 130 The Lord instructs Ezekiel to tell the bones, “I will cause the breath to enter you, and you shall live”. Today’s passage from Ezekiel makes the process of bringing bones to life very graphic. There’s nothing abstract: first the bones…

Fourth Sunday in Lent, March 19, 2023: 1 Samuel 16:1-13; Ephesians 5:8-14; John 9:1-41; Psalm 23 Today’s readings all circle around what we see, and how we understand what we see. We are repeatedly reminded that, in the words of 1 Samuel, “the Lord does not see as mortals see”. “Who sinned, this man or…

Third Sunday in Lent, March 12, 2023: Exodus 17:1-7; Romans 5:1-11; John 4:5-42; Psalm 95 We need water to live.  We need it on multiple levels.  We need it for our bodies, and we also need it to grow the food we eat.  This winter I suspect we have all had conversations that simultaneously express…

First Sunday of Lent, February 26,2023: Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7; Romans 5:12-19; Matthew 4:1-11; Psalm 32 Last week we were up in the mountains, now we’re in the wilderness. It is only after Jesus has been there forty days and forty nights that the tempter comes to him. It took that long for the tempter to…

Last Sunday of Epiphany, February 19, 2023: Exodus 24:12-18; 2 Peter 1:16-21; Matthew 17:1-9; Psalm 2 Strange things happen on mountaintops. Mountaintops are among the world’s “thin” places, places where this world and others meet. Maybe because there is less oxygen, maybe because the effort getting up there, maybe because the astonishing vistas we see…

6th Sunday of Epiphany, 12 February 2023: Deuteronomy 30:15-20; Psalm 119:1-8; 1 Corinthians 3:1-9; Matthew 5: 21-37 “If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I am commanding you today, by loving the Lord your God, walking in his ways, and observing his commandments, decrees, and ordinances, then you shall live and…