Bruce Epperly on the Lectionary, Pentecost + 8 (C)
This is a very interesting Adventurous Lectionary.
This is a very interesting Adventurous Lectionary.
This week I did some reading on the lectionary, and even led a discussion on Wednesday, but due to work on some new book releases I never had time to write. There is one theme that came to mind when I was looking at the two liturgies–palms and passion. In teaching Bible study I like…
This passage has created quite a few problems over the years. There are women who feel really oppressed by it. Others feel this truly describes the perfect woman and try to get women (and girls) to live up to it. I encountered these various attitudes in a discussion group yesterday. My strong suggestion is to…
Bruce Epperly challenges us to think more carefully about God and human suffering in his Adventurous Lectionary for the week. Takeaway: Adventurous theological reflection challenges images of God as unilateral punisher and bully. These images are unworthy of Jesus of Nazareth.
References: 1 Kings 2:10-12, 3:3-15; Psalm 111; Ephesians 5:15-20; John 6:51-58 For three of these passages it is quite easy to find a common theme – wisdom. If you go a step further, all of those passages talk about wisdom in action. For the remaining passage, the gospel, one may be tempted to preach a…
In a previous post I mentioned that one problem we have with understanding forgiveness is that we tend to make excuses and to blame others rather than feel guilt on our own account. Everything is OK, and we’re “not too bad.” We also lose the impact of some of the richest texts about salvtion, because…
While there is much violence in the Old Testament (and a certain amount in the New), the basic ideas of grace are still expressed regularly. Nowhere is this clearer, in my opinion, than in the appeal to salvation history in passages of judgment and of exhortation. The Old Testament passage and the Psalm for Proper…