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Category Archives: Lection Reflections
Pentecost — Who Was There, and Why Do You Care?
Let’s play a game. I’m going to write a phrase, and you take a snapshot of the picture that pops up in your mind when you see it. Ready? OK — just highlight the space after the parens with your … Continue reading
Tough Verses in John 17
(A Lection Reflection on John 17: 20-22) OK, let’s get something on the table right up front: if you want to go beyond just the devotional, then some passages are hard. They raise issues of Christology and the nature of … Continue reading
Waiting To Be Healed — a Lection Reflection on John 5
(A Lection Reflection on John 5: 1-9) There are events in the Bible that are so overlaid with symbolism and meaning that trying to unpack them feels like opening one of those Russian nesting doll sets: you take out the … Continue reading
My Sheep Hear My Voice — Say What?
(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 … Continue reading
Restoration or Resurrection?
(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 … Continue reading
Palm Sunday Cynics
(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 … Continue reading
And It’s God From the 3-Point Line!
(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 … Continue reading
The Circle of Reconciliation
(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, … Continue reading
Hard Truths
(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 … Continue reading
Where Are You Looking? What Do You See?
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 … Continue reading