Devotionals
What Would YOU Ask God to Do?
I want to focus on just one line of text. In 1 Kings 3:5, God tells Solomon to ask God what God should give Solomon. It’s a simple enough question. Most of us remember the answer. Solomon wants wisdom. God decides to give him wisdom and lots of riches as well. As I reflect on [...]
How to Accomplish God’s Will
This is my second thought today from John 6:24-35, the gospel passage from Proper 13B. It’s a tightly packed passage! In verses 28-29 Jesus says: 28They said to him, “What do we need to do to perform God’s works?” 29Jesus answered, “This is God’s work: That you put your trust [or believe] in the one [...]
Who Does the Calling (9B, 2 Sam. 5:1-5
This is a seemingly simple story. The elders of Israel finally recognize David as king after a long time of rebellion and civil war. All come together and make a covenant with David and he becomes their king. But if you think back in the story, you may recall that in 1 Samuel 16, the [...]
Hard to Lead? (Easter 6B, Acts 10:44-48)
Scripture: Acts 10:44-48 OK, for those who might be unacquainted with the lectionary, let me note that the Acts passage takes the place of the standard Old Testament reading this week. To keep things together, I therefore categorize it as Old Testament. Acts is in the New Testament, obviously! How hard is it to lead [...]
All You Need is Love
Scripture: 1 John 4:7-21 While I confess to be a love teacher, I am often puzzled by the way Christians speak about love as though it is the easier way. It is as though they might try following some rules, but that would be too hard, so they’ll try love instead. But a love that [...]
Tell Your Story
I talk about this quite a bit (here, for example), but I don’t think it can be emphasized enough. It’s very difficult to get people to listen to your theology, your theories about how God works. It’s much easier to get them to listen–and understand–when they hear your story. Psalm 107 from this week’s lectionary [...]
When Even Brilliance is Foolish (Lent 3B/1 Cor. 1:18-25)
There are so many ideas that come from reading 1 Corinthians 1:18-25. The worst is the notion that many foolish human notions are actually divine wisdom. Paul doesn’t tell us any such thing. Certainly human wisdom falls far short of God’s wisdom, and we may have some very foolish ideas that we mistake for wisdom, [...]
Is the Cross Still Foolish? (1 Cor 1:18-25/Lent 3B)
Scripture: 1 Corinthians 1:18-25 (Translation and Notes) After around 2000 years of preaching, whole nations that have claimed to be Christian, serious Bible study by well-qualified scholars, and plenty of examples to work from, does the cross still look like foolishness? I have answer, “Yes, in every way!” There is an element lacking in our [...]
God is in Creation (Psalm 19/Lent 3B)
I have always loved Psalm 19, and I also regard it as a unified Psalm even though it is divided into two parts. Those two parts, however, convey a unified central message. God is the creator and this is why he is also the lawgiver. In the ten commandments, also part of this week’s reading, [...]