Tag: god
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The Liturgical Use of Scripture
2 Corinthians 13:11-13 – 5/31/2026 – Trinity Sunday & The Visitation of Mary to Elizabeth The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you 2 Corinthians 13:13 (NRSVue) Today’s Lectionary texts from the New Testament, both the Epistle reading and the…
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The Response to Love: Command and Promise
John 14:15-17 – 5/30/2026 If you love me, [you will] keep my commandments. John 14:15 (NRSVue) The connection between loving Jesus and keeping Jesus’s commandments is central to the life of a Christian. Loving Jesus provides the motivation to follow; keeping the commandments is simply the act of following Jesus. There is a certain amount…
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Our Powerlessness and the Question of How to Live
Job 38:12-21 – 5/29/2026 Have you commanded the morning since your days began and caused the dawn to know its place[?] Job 38:12 (NRSVue) The answer to God’s rhetorical question to Job and his companions is obviously no. No one other than God commands the morning dawn to rise, not the righteous nor the unrighteous,…
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The Time of Our Salvation
2 Timothy 1:8-12 – 5/28/2026 [God] saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works but according to his own purpose and grace, and this grace was given to us in Christ Jesus before [historic time]. 2 Timothy 1:9 (NRSVue with my re-translation) When I left the life of the…
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A Life-Affirming Gospel of Celebration
John 7:37-39 – 5/27/2026 On the last day of the festival, the great day, while Jesus was standing there, he cried out, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink. As the scripture has said, ‘Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water.’”…
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The Breath of God, Third Person of the Trinity
Psalm 104:24-35 – 5/26/2026 When you send forth your spirit [or breath], [living things] are created, and you renew the face of the ground. Psalm 104:30 (NRSVue) The word “Spirit” in both the Greek and Hebrew portions of the Bible is a tricky word. In both languages the word that gets translated as “spirit” primarily…
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Food for the Hungry from an Embodied God
Joel 2:18-29 – 5/25/2026 I am sending you grain, wine, and oil, and you will be satisfied Joel 2:19 (NRSVue) Today’s reading from the Hebrew Prophet Joel contains the prophesy that Peter references on the first day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit descends on the gathered believers. “I will pour out my spirit on…
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The Age of the Absence of God
Exodus 19:16-25 – 5/22/2026 Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God. Exodus 19:17 (NRSVue) Moses bought the people… to meet God. Poetic in its straightforwardness, we are given a picture of the immediate presence of God being discerned by an entire people gathered together. Even though only Aaron and Moses could…
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The Text of Humanity Under Threat
Acts 2:1-11 – 5/21/2026 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability. Acts 2:4 (NRSVue) Christianity proliferates text. Between the oral traditions of the earliest church to the sermons that resound from pulpits every Sunday around the world, the world has…
Dionysus on a Bike 