Lent begins. And we are invited into the ancient practice of fasting. Fasting does not mean adding a new practice, but shedding a practice for the purpose of deepening our trust in God. The stories of Jesus and of Adam and Eve invite us to consider what sorts of props we have erected to hold… Read more about Lent Week 1: Fasting as Trust in God #LectioCast
God breaks into the present: with a glory that humans embody. The Lectionary sets us up with a series of interlocking texts that richly inform one another. Exodus 24:12 Moses goes up a mountain, as do Elijah and Jesus after him. God meets Moses in the cloud, and tabernacle and glory ensue. Psalm 2 If… Read more about Transfiguration Sunday: Up and Down the Mountain with Jeffrey Pugh #LectioCast...
It’s a great week to get fired! So preach Leviticus 19 and tell people what it actually says. Leviticus 19:1-2, 9-18 We all know the command, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” But what does that love look like? And how might that love manifest itself in subversion of the expectations of market capitalism? Psalm 119:33-40… Read more about What Neighbor Love Looks Like with Rev. Dr. Wil Gafney #LectioCast...
How does a Christian walk in the ways of God, loving God with heart, soul, mind, and strength? Do we do this by obeying the Law? Or by following Jesus? Or both? Deuteronomy 30:15-20 How is the Abrahamic covenant realized? How is the land possessed and the seed multiplied? Faithfulness to the commandments. This is… Read more about To Law or Not To Law, that is the Question #LectioCast...
We are the light of the world. And the very things we do in service to God can be the darkness that obscures the light just as easily as the light that dispels the gloom. Isaiah 58:1-12 Don’t be hoodwinked by acts of piety that don’t bring life to your neighbor. Psalm 112:1-9 Celebrating people… Read more about People of the Light #LectioCast
If you want to know what people expect of God, listen to what they think blessing looks like. Epiphany continues to challenge us to look for and recognize God in the places we spurn and despise—even though these are usually our own places. Matthew 5:1-12 Do we really aspire to the Kingdom depicted in the… Read more about The God of the Upside Down Kingdom #LectioCast
Doug Pagitt breaks it down: the problem is Second Grade. Just wait. Isaiah 9:1-4 Overcoming gloom: a beautiful picture of hope. But the reality is… Second Grade. Am I right? Psalm 27:1, 4-9 There’s a rhythm of salvation and distress. And maybe a bit of uncertainty about whether that rhythm will recur. Then there’s the… Read more about “The Second Grade Problem,” with Doug Pagitt #LectioCast...
Will we be able to recognize God when God appears? We tend to look “up,” but perhaps we need to look down. Isaiah 49:1-7 The work of the servant is playing out in plain sight: but God’s people aren’t seeing it, and God doesn’t seem to be honoring it. Will we know the work of… Read more about 1st Sunday After Epiphany with Doug Pagitt #LectioCast
The baptism of Jesus is one of the most perplexing, challenging passages in the Gospels. We can shine a little light on it, but only if we’re willing to distinguish Jesus from God, recognizing God as the empowering agent who also marks with the Spirit as God’s beloved children. Isaiah 42:1-9 The servant in whom… Read more about The Baptism of Our Lord: A Man Anointed by God #LectioCast...
Happy New Year! God is with us in a solidarity more profound than most of us ever dare to imagine. Isaiah 63:7-9 Getting wrapped up in the fulness of God’s blessing: unmediated, direct blessing. God shows up in God’s love. With an awesome digression on the Abraham story. Psalm 148 A picture of the cosmos.… Read more about God’s Blessing as Solidarity with Us, with Danielle Shroyer #LectioCast...
For God to be savior, God has to be at work. Together we delve into the work that God must do if God is to be honored and celebrated as savior. And we get wrapped up in the saving work, not only as objects, but as active participants. Isaiah 52:7-10 What kind of good news… Read more about Christmas Proper 3: Christmas Conclusion, with Danielle Shroyer
An annual reminder that God has chosen to be in relationship with us before we could do anything in response. In the person of Jesus we are given the incarnate presence of God’s deepest blessing with us. And to that blessing we said no. And yet God continues to call us into the relationship God… Read more about Christmas Proper 2: Christmas Continues, with Danielle Shroyer
Isaiah 9:2-7 The birth of Jesus echoes the birth of an earlier king, a previous “mighty God, everlasting father.” Let that mess with your Christology! Psalm 96 God’s plan of salvation is SO MUCH BIGGER than human salvation. The whole creation is wrapped up in God’s saving work. Do we live in such a way… Read more about Christmas Proper 1: Christmas For All From Below, with Danielle Shroyer #LectioCast...
Are we sure we know what we’re waiting for? God is faithful, and God is full of surprises. Isaiah 7:10-16 Your favorite Jesus prophecy that originally had nothing to do with Jesus! So, what does this mean about who Jesus is and what salvation means Matthew 1:18-25 An invitation to imagine what salvation looks like—and… Read more about #LectioCast Advent 4: Waiting for a Surprise with Mihee Kim-Kort...
In this special episode I get to ask three world-class theologians five questions about preaching and teaching the Bible. Here they are. And they are four in number: 1. Can we say Jesus is Lord in a post-patriarchal context? 2. How do you know when to stay with a church or denomination? How do you… Read more about Special Bonus Episode: Cynthia Rigsby, Monica A. Coleman, and Scott MacDougall...
What time is it? Where are we in the unfolding narrative of God’s story of promise and deliverance? Isaiah and Jesus each show us what the time of arrival looks like. With Isaiah we look for a time yet to come. With Jesus we remember that the time has already arrived. Isaiah 35:1-10 An exuberant… Read more about Advent 3: In Need of Reversal with Mihee Kim-Kort #LectioCast
Our calling is to live out the Advent story. We are supposed to be the people who put on full display for the world the acceptance with which God has embraced us. We are the people of Abraham’s children raised from stone, we are the people in whom the lion and lamb lie down together,… Read more about Advent 2: Waiting for the Messiah with Jason Micheli #LectioCast
The waiting game begins again. But we’re not waiting for the Messiah to be born. We’re waiting for him to reappear. We’re looking and longing for the new creation that was promised with the reign of God’s faithful servant. And so we watch for an hour whose coming we cannot anticipate. And so we become… Read more about Advent: Waiting for the Messiah with Jason Micheli #LectioCast...
Christ is king. That’s the week on the liturgical calendar, it’s the promise of God. And it’s our hope in a time when we have figured out that our earthly shepherds are not going to fulfill God’s visions of justice and righteousness. Jeremiah 23:1-6 God will shepherd God’s people. God will raise up a faithful… Read more about Take Heart: Christ is King #LectioCast
The promise of new creation bursts through with images of wholeness, shalom, restoration, and God’s relentless passion for God’s beloved people. And when a bystander tries to get Jesus to say that the time has finally come for it, Jesus says, “Actually, it’s about to get a whole lot worse.” Isaiah 65:17-25 New creation looks… Read more about A Glorious New Creation! After Things Get Really, Really Bad #LectioCast...
In a world in which “you can’t always get what you want,” whether it’s justice, abundance, equality, or a decent political candidate, how do we continue to place our hope in God? Why should we place our hope in God? Haggai 1:15b-2:9 In the midst of grave disappointment God says, “Don’t give up on me… Read more about Living in Hope (on the Brink of an Election) #LectioCast
Sometimes the chaos of the world compels us to call on God to set all things right. Sometimes the chaos of the world compels us to delight in God’s presence in the midst of hardship. Can we take hold of both? Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4 A cry for justice in a time of uncertainty. And a… Read more about The Contemplative Practice of Faithfulness to God with Corinna Guerrero #LectioCast...
In order for shame to be undone, our whole system of judgment must be turned on its head. God honors those whom the world would shame. But are we really ready to hear it? The parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector might push us to our limits. Joel 2:23-32 A holistic picture of… Read more about Leaving Shame, Finding Righteousness #LectioCast
What is the Bible and what are we supposed to do with it? What does knowing God mean, and how does scripture help? How will we know when we are seeing an accurate representation of God? These are the questions the Lectionary guides us through this week. 2 Timothy 3:14–4:5 Scripture is inspired by God—for… Read more about Scripture, Law, and Knowing God #LectioCast
How do we live as people who are not in charge? How do we live among a people who are not like us, how do we respond to life’s calamities, how do we respond to life’s blessings? What do our responses show us about what kind of people we are and how we do or… Read more about Finding Life, Thanking God #LectioCast
A series of challenging passages invite us to image what sort of hope we have for the “life” that God promises us in Christ. The passages this week are: Luke 17:5-10 2 Timothy 1:1-14 Lamentations 1:1-6, 3:19-26 Psalm 137 Daniel Kirk is a writer, speaker, and blogger who lives in San Francisco, CA. He is… Read more about Whips of Hope #LectioCast
Tim Conder joins the LectioCast again, bringing his wisdom as a community organizer and pastor to texts calling us to account for how we look to God, how we deal with our money, how we love our neighbor. 1 Timothy 6:6-19 Where pseudo-Paul comes in sounding a whole lot like Jesus, challenging us with warnings… Read more about Collaborating with Divine Generosity with Tim Conder #LectioCast...
Tim Conder joins the LectioCast to talk about lament, finding our role in the biblical stories, and understanding how Jesus confronts and overthrows the oppressive power structures of the world. Jeremiah 8:18-9:1 The lament we need to embrace if we want to celebrate the comedy of the gospel. The right answer does not silent the… Read more about Finding Gospel Comedy in a Tragically Broken World with Tim Conder #LectioCast...
This bonus edition was recorded before a live audience at the 2016 Wild Goose Festival in Hot Springs, NC. Michael and Daniel sit down to talk about how Christians should read the Old Testament. Do we take on board the NT authors’ view of things, that Jesus as Messiah is the interpretive key to the… Read more about Bonus Edition: What Difference Does Jesus Make for How We Read the Old Testament? with Michael Kimpan #LectioCast...
Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28 Anti-creation. And it’s all the fault of God’s faithless people. Talk about terrifying. Psalm 14 Here we face the question: what does it mean to consume God’s people? Slave labor? Prison industrial complex? It might be that we say “there is no God” in ways that we’d be surprised about. 1 Timothy… Read more about From Anti-Creation to Heavenly Party #LectioCast
