A migrant people are promised their land, and Jesus’ own migration promises to end in death. This week’s Lectionary texts take place in the gritty places where divine deliverance is needed. Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18 Warning: Daniel downer debunks a favorite interpretation of God passing through slaughtered birds. But the gift of the land creates its… Read more about God’s Faithfulness and Our Own with Aric Clark #LectioCast...
Feb 16, 2016•41 min
We kick off Lent this week with some reflections on Lenten practices. And we see how entering into Lent after Transfiguration Sunday forces us to leave the glory of the mountain in favor of the road to Jerusalem. Deuteronomy 26:1-11 The offering of the fruits of the land is a seal and celebration of the… Read more about Lenten Fasting in the Midst of Plenty with Aric Clark #LectioCast...
Feb 08, 2016•37 min
The holiness of God comes down to be in, with, and among the people. And Jesus subverts our understanding of the power of the profane. These are a series of stories about what happens when God shows that the place for glowy glory is not just up in heaven, but down here among us as… Read more about When Holiness Comes Down with Aric Clark #LectioCast
Feb 01, 2016•41 min
Cindy Wang Brandt joins Daniel again, drawing our conversation into broader spheres of consideration than we might have found otherwise. She reminds us of the importance of children—how this is astounding in the ancient context and a witness to God’s power. We walk through Psalm 71 and hear of a salvation that spans generations and… Read more about Who Matters? with Cindy Wang Brandt #LectioCast...
Jan 25, 2016•34 min
For the third Sunday after Epiphany we have the appearance of Jesus at the Synagogue of Nazareth. We get a glimpse of Jesus’ mission through his reading of Isaiah. A social gospel manifesto. The Spirit who inspired Jesus then comes to us as it makes us one with Christ—and forces us to ask how we… Read more about The Social Gospel and the Present Christ #LectioCast
Jan 18, 2016•38 min
It’s the Second Sunday After Epiphany and we are joined by Cindy Wag Brandt for some LectioCast fun! Isaiah 62:1-5 Celebration. Praise. Delight. We’re familiar with all these—but are we ready to see them as God’s own posture toward God’s people? (Also, Daniel rides his hobby horse about God sharing God’s awesome stuff with God’s people.)… Read more about God’s Celebrations with Cindy Wang Brandt #LectioCast...
Jan 11, 2016•36 min
Eric Barreto wraps up his tour of duty by helping usher us into Epiphany. Isaiah 43:1-7 A HUGE REVEAL! The deepest vocational longing of Daniel’s heart is laid bare! Also, there is intimate language of God’s care for God’s beloved children, maybe an anticipation of the baptism scene itself. Psalm 29 attempts to depict the… Read more about God’s Beloved Children with Eric Barreto #LectioCast...
Jan 05, 2016•35 min
Eric Barreto is back to help us round off our Christmas episodes. We catch a vision of God creating a unified people in Christ, and Eric calls us to more faithfully interweave our understandings of heaven and earth. Jeremiah 31:7-14 In a diffuse world of turmoil, Jeremiah promises unity as God gathers people together. The… Read more about The Dynamic God Who Creates One People with Eric Barreto #LectioCast...
Dec 28, 2015•37 min
Eric Barreto leads off by inviting us to embrace the fact that we always read in community. Everyone’s reading is a gift and value for the church. We see characters all around the edges of the stories and society finding their place right at the middle of God’s work. 1 Samuel 2:18-20, 26 Hannah gives… Read more about It’s Christmas! #LectioCast
Dec 21, 2015•33 min
Margaret Aymer Oget joins for the final installment of our Advent series. Our wide-ranging discussion ties together texts, the character of God, first advent, and second Advent. We remember what it’s like when God breaks through in the midst of the sorrow and brokenness to upend the powers the oppose God’s shalom. Micah 5:2-5a We… Read more about When God Breaks Through #LectioCast w/ @mayog...
Dec 13, 2015•40 min
Bruce Reyes-Chow joins the LectioCast, and God tries to convince him to rejoice. He resists… but only for a while. Zephaniah 3:14-20 Bruce doesn’t want us to get too crazy about celebration without taking stock of where it comes from. Daniel draws attention to the beautiful peculiar. And then, what does it mean to be… Read more about Rejoicing as We Wait #LectioCast w/ @breyeschow
Dec 07, 2015•36 min
Micha Boyett joins the LectioCast to talk through the business of waiting on the Lord for Advent week 2. We uncover how the biblical texts expect a beautified people waiting for a beautiful and celebrated arrival of God. Malachi 3:1-4 Micha draws our attention to how much time is spent focusing on the messenger rather… Read more about A Beautified, Expectant People #LectioCast w/ Micha Boyett
Nov 30, 2015•37 min
Daniel was joined by his beloved brother, Alex Kirk, who helped shine all kinds of preaching light on passages about the reign of God’s faithful king. 2 Samuel 23:1-7 Daniel wants us to incorporate people into worship—his pet heresy. Alex directs the conversation toward how God names us and identifies us as God’s own. Daniel… Read more about Reign of David, Reign of Christ #LectioCast
Nov 17, 2015•36 min
Carol Howard Merritt joined Daniel to kick off the new Lectionary year with some reflections on faithful waiting. Jeremiah 33:14-16 Carol reflects on biblical anticipations of the future that should expel our fear in hope of safety. Daniel rides his human-representatives-of-God hobby horse. Psalm 25:1-10 Carol runs the ideas of trust and waiting through the… Read more about Waiting for Safety #LectioCast w/ Carol Howard Merritt...
Nov 17, 2015•43 min
Daniel was joined by folks from around the world for the second ever Periscope party recording session. Unfortunately, he doesn’t speak Turkish. That liability aside, the readings for the penultimate Sunday of the church year took us into the liminal space between those actions of God we have seen and the acts of God we… Read more about Waiting in Hope #LectioCast
Nov 10, 2015•36 min
In an episode in which Daniel is stood up by his co-host, the Periscope faithful help guide the discussion toward helpful insights and useful thoughts for preaching. The episode finds its thread in the recurring role of God as one who transforms the shame and weight of death of the world into glory and freedom… Read more about The God Who Upends the World #LectioCast
Nov 03, 2015•29 min
It is time to prepare your sermon. There are assigned Bible passages. What do you do? #LectioCast Hebrews 9:11-14 The human Jesus enters the Tabernacle not made with hands and is himself the sacrifice in God’s presence (not on the cross). Mark 12:28-34 This story is weird because things go so well for the scribe.… Read more about this is the week for feasting #LectioCast
Oct 26, 2015•32 min
This is the week where things that were off kilter get better and God is celebrated for it: Job gets his stuff back, the psalmist is answered, the suffering obedient Son is exalted eternally to God’s side, and Jesus gets a follower with sight enough to follow him to the cross. Scott Jones makes his… Read more about Mind = Blown #LectioCast
Oct 19, 2015•30 min
Mark 10:35-45 A funny story, showing us what it looks like to deny that Jesus has to die on the cross. There is glory to be had, but how are we to have it? And, you get to find out what Daniel’s favorite verse is in the whole Bible! Job 38:1-7, (34-41) Wrestling with the… Read more about Glory: Christ’s, God’s, and Ours #LectioCast
Oct 12, 2015•31 min
E. Scott Jones joins the program, and he loves to preach on Job! This is a good thing, inasmuch as Job 23, Ps 22, and Heb 4 are all Job-like stories. And it might just be that the failure of Mark’s rich man is a failure to embrace the Job narrative himself. Job 23 Spoiler… Read more about The surprising posture of confessing God #LectioCast
Oct 06, 2015•35 min
Proper 22, October 4, 2015 Job 1:1; 2:1-10; Psalm 26; Hebrews 1:1-4; 2:5-12; Mark 10:2-16 Job 1, 2 God drawing Satan’s attention to a good guy might make one a wee bit nervous. But fortunately for everyone jrdk has a Mountain Goats song to help get you through it. Psalm 26 “The prayer for those… Read more about Love of Mountain Goats & Children #LectioCast
Sep 28, 2015•41 min
Proper 21, September 27, 2015: Esther 7:1-6, 9-10; 9:20-22, Psalm 124, James 5:13-20, Mark 9:38-50 These passages challenge us to live in the world in such a way that God is with us, that God being with us matters, and that God in the world makes the world better than it could otherwise possibly be. In… Read more about Toward a Second Naïveté #LectioCast
Sep 22, 2015•31 min
We keep slogging through wisdom texts, passages that invite us to the daring work of embracing an economy that flips the way of the world on its head.Bo drops his great line again, week 2 out of 2: “Each person is a seat of the presence of God.” Mark 9: Daniel fills out Jesus’ “son… Read more about Investing in God’s Way of Being in the World #LectioCast
Sep 14, 2015•31 min
Bo Sanders emerges from his doctoral exam prep cave to enliven and enlighten our study of the Lectionary Texts for Proper 19, Sept 13. He brings in a theme that will run through the next four weeks: “Everyone you meet a seat for the presence of God.” Across these texts we’re confronted with the likelihood… Read more about Finding Life by Listening #LectioCast
Sep 07, 2015•33 min
Danielle Shroyer wraps up her four-week stint by challenging us on privilege, empowerment, and trust while working through the texts for Proper 18. A theme emerges about entrusting ourselves to God’s economy of abundance, with its call for lives of generosity. James 2: Favoritism. James’s warning about favoritism gets contextualized into a world of (white)… Read more about Entrusting Ourselves to Abundance and Generosity #LectioCast...
Aug 31, 2015•33 min
What if the Song of Songs is actually the least scandalous depiction of erotic love in the whole Bible? The “Dude’s Got Sex Appeal” edition of LectioCast entertains that possibility. Let that sink in for a minute. If you can’t take it, don’t worry: Daniel has a praise song that shows definitively that the whole… Read more about Dude’s Got Sex Appeal! #LectioCast
Aug 24, 2015•35 min
Danielle Shroyer brings her keen eye for the boundary-breaking God to a series of texts that show us how difficult God is to contain. John 6 continues to challenge us, we try to turn our offense back around on ourselves, and we reflect on the significance of the Temple for a post-Temple people. John 6… Read more about Beware the Boundary Breaking God #LectioCast
Aug 18, 2015•36 min
Danielle Shroyer joins Daniel Kirk to bring some much needed pastoral insight to the running theme of wisdom. Solomon gets it—for wanting what Adam and Eve grasped after in the Garden. Where do we find the wisdom to get over our aversion to naming God as worthy of praise? Can we find the path of… Read more about Wisdom: Solomon Got It, We Need It #LectioCast
Aug 11, 2015•36 min
Tripp Fuller joins Daniel Kirk to talk about John’s exclusive Jesus, the hard work of becoming truth tellers, and extending compassion to our heroes and ourselves. John 6 Tripp and Daniel get all deep about naming Jesus wrongly even when we have our facts straight. Tripp breaks down how Jesus as Logos of God opens… Read more about From the Word of God to the Words of our Mouths #LectioCast...
Aug 05, 2015•36 min
A contest. Another contest. And the Lectionary Commentary for Proper 13, August 2, 2015. Tripp Fuller joins the party yet again. We end up threading together a conversation about neighbor love: how can focus on God get in the way? how can sermons on unity and gifts facilitate it rather than unraveling it? how does… Read more about Neighbor Hate, Neighbor Love, Neighbor Jesus #LectioCast...
Jul 27, 2015•33 min
