My Sheep Hear My Voice — Say What?

Posted on 04/15/2013 by bruceinlouisville

(A Lection Reflection on John 10:27)

If you look up today’s text on Google, you get 1.9 million hits. If you put the text in quotes (“my sheep hear my voice”) you still get 1.5 million hits. That’s 1,500,000 web pages that address this text in some way. Plus at least one hit for shopping.

Lots of those pages spend pixels focusing on the sheep part, and discussing that, yes, sheep actually do learn their shepherd’s voice, and yes, those same sheep only follow when they hear that voice. One page even noted that a recording of the shepherd’s voice works just as well.

I’m taking a different tack on the subject.

Continue reading →

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The Cure for Writing Constipation

Posted on 04/04/2013 by bruceinlouisville

I am in the second day of a two-day writing vacation. I take these once in a while to get away, see some countryside, and prime the pumps. On this WriteAway (cute), I’m at a state park that is almost empty.

So, after checking in and unpacking, I finally sat down to write. And … nothing.

Continue reading →

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Restoration or Resurrection?

Posted on 03/26/2013 by bruceinlouisville

(A Lection Reflection on Easter)

In another Lection Reflection, I talked a little about the scope of Easter. I made the point that Easter was more than a one-time event; it is, instead, a part of God’s ongoing work in the world. God is in the business of bringing new life to dead things: dead persons, dead relationships, dead institutions. The promise of Easter is not just for eternity; it can also be for the here-and-now.

One important point, though, is that when God gets involved, the nature of the thing being resurrected (is that a word?) seems to change. In other words, God seems to be in the business of resurrection, not restoration. Continue reading →

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The Scope of Easter

Posted on 03/26/2013 by bruceinlouisville

(A Lection Reflection on Easter)

One of the important concepts we use in project work is “scope.” It refers, of course, to the reach of the project or initiative. Does this web site rebuild involve only the interface, or are there new features included? Are we remodeling both bathrooms, or just the master? How many counties are included in your housing assistance fund? Getting agreement on scope is critical to ensuring that everyone understands the project the same way.

What, then, is the scope of Easter? Is it an important symbolic story, from which we draw meaning? Is it a factual one-time event, that we look back to and celebrate? Or is there some scope, some reach, that we are missing? Continue reading →

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Palm Sunday Cynics

Posted on 03/19/2013 by bruceinlouisville

(A Lection Reflection on Luke 19: 28-40)

Fickle. Disloyal. Unreliable.

I’ve heard my fair share of sermons and devotionals that use such terms to describe the Palm Sunday crowd. You have too. I call them Palm Sunday Cynics.

“Here they are, waving palms and praising Jesus, and six days later they are shouting ‘Crucify him!'”

It’s an easy sermon to prepare and to preach — Palm Sunday and Good Friday make nice bookends and a sharp contrast. The perfidy of humankind — got it. And, since none of us would ever be part of that mob on Friday, it immediately becomes about those people, and we can sit back and enjoy, knowing we are not in the picture.

The quote above, though, is a false premise, which is obvious once you look at it. Continue reading →

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And It’s God From the 3-Point Line!

Posted on 03/11/2013 by bruceinlouisville

(A Lection Reflection on Psalm 126 and Isaiah 43: 16-21)

As those who know me will attest, I’m a big sports guy. My favorite sports are football and basketball, with college basketball being at the top of the list. And as you might expect, my most favorite time of my most favorite sport is right now: March Madness!

Who doesn’t love the drama, the effort, the miracle finishes, the amazing story lines? The underdogs, the upsets, the come-from-behind victories! And topping them all, indelibly burned into our collective memories and frozen in time, are the winning shots at the buzzer. If you love the sport, you’ll know these names and these shots: Bryce Drew, Christian Laettner, Keith Smart. If you’ve ever been on the winning side of a buzzer-beater, you know that feeling of sudden, thrilling exhilaration. We won!

So, when I read this week’s readings in Psalm 126 and Isaiah 43, my first thought was of buzzer-beaters: that moment when we move from certain defeat to sudden victory. From despair to pandemonium. From no hope to new possibilities. Continue reading →

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The Circle of Reconciliation

Posted on 03/04/2013 by bruceinlouisville

(A Lection Reflection on 2 Corinthians 5: 16-21)

There are certain verses in the Bible that convey such an important truth that I think they ought to be automatically highlighted in every translation. We have such a verse this week, with a truth so unusual and different that it literally transforms our understanding of the Christ event. And yet, the next verse seems to break this circle. Hmm … sounds like a paradox. Let’s take a look. Continue reading →

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Hard Truths

Posted on 02/28/2013 by Bruce

(A Lection Reflection on Luke 13:1-9)

Many years ago, I heard an important truth: Do not turn a parable into an allegory. I suspect that I violated that rule in an earlier essay I wrote on the Fig Tree and the Gardener, so today I want to take a slightly different tack.

Before I start, let me confess: I have started this Reflection five times, and thrown them all away. Why? Because there are some hard truths here, some things to wrestle with. What I want to do is look at these hard things together, acknowledge them, then try to understand and apply them. Continue reading →

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Where Are You Looking? What Do You See?

Posted on 02/19/2013 by Bruce

I can’t do those fake 3D drawings. You know, the ones where you focus on a red dot or some such thing, and all of a sudden out pops a scene that you didn’t see before. I have friends who can see it in a few seconds, but I just can’t seem to get the hang of it. I’m looking, but I can’t see it.

The same thing happens to some of us when we look at life. We’re looking, but all we see is the obvious: bills, work, relationships, the news, the games, the pain, love, death. The stuff included in the phrase “that’s just life, man.”

But what if that ISN’T just life? What if there was another reality, right alongside the stuff we already see, that we can get a glimpse of if we just adjust our way of looking? Even better — what if looking at a different place, and seeing a different thing, can actually change our life here and now, can actually change the way we look at all this life stuff? Continue reading →

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Testing God

Posted on 02/13/2013 by Bruce

(A Lection Reflection on Luke 4:1-12)

Let me put some thoughts in front of you, and you tell me if you’ve heard these before:

  • Trust in God.
  • Believe God’s word.
  • Stand on the promises of God.
  • Step out in faith.

Sound familiar? Sure — we’ve all heard these, and probably said them at one time or another. Yet in today’s lection, Jesus not only refuses to do these things, he winds up saying that acting on them is testing God. And that’s a bad thing.

Huh. Not exactly what we expected, right? Let’s take a look. Continue reading →

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