The Season after Pentecost: Proper 7, Year B

Power and Faith

• 1 Samuel 17:(1a, 4-11, 19-23), 32-49
• Psalm 9:9-20
• 2 Corinthians 6:1-13
• Mark 4:35-41

Today we have two great stories from scripture: David & Goliath and Jesus stilling the storm. In both cases, there is a power of unimaginable strength that appears to be in control of the “human condition.”

Goliath, the behemoth Philistine, intimidates all by his physical appearance and battle prowess. He evokes fear and dismay to all he approaches. However, David (the youngest son of Jesse as we heard in last week’s Old Testament reading), volunteers to fight him – without armor for protection or a dangerous weapon of war. Instead, with just five smooth stones and a sling he calls on his radical faith in God’s protection. David slays Goliath with one stone’s throw. This act is a witness to the power of the living God, through whom the seemingly weak are able to overcome the powerful. 

The Season after Pentecost, Proper 5: Year B

The Eternal 

• 1 Samuel 8:4-11, (12-15), 16-20 (11:14-15)
• Psalm 138
• 2 Corinthians 4:13-5:1
• Mark 3:30-35

Because we look not at what can be see but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal. For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2 Corinthians 4:18-5:1

We know that God who raised the Lord Jesus to life will raise us too. Our eyes are fixed on the things that are unseen, what is seen passes away; the unseen is eternal. Faith leads to hope even in the face of adversity. Paul writing to the Corinthian converts declares what it means to experience the longed-for redemption. Anyone who trusts in the Lord can tell of it. We all have the same Spirit of faith in whom we believe; thus we are able to speak, as Paul did.

The Season after Pentecost, Proper 4: Year B

New Freedom

• 1 Samuel 3:1-10, (11-20) or Deuteronomy 5:12-15
• Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18 or Psalm 81:1-10
• 2 Corinthians 4:5-12
• Mark 2:23-3:6

All power over life and death belongs to God, and we can never control it. This challenges us to confront the conventions of the world. Despite any difficulty, God allows our witness to persevere for Jesus’ sake. Although the Ten Commandments were given to the people generations earlier, there is always a need for clarification and further understanding of what God requires of us.

Today’s Gospel is an example of that. Among the Pharisees, the Sabbath, with its blessings of rest, worship, and quiet, had turned into a rigid routine full of regulations and restrictions. As Jesus and his disciples travel over the fields on the Sabbath, the disciples began to make a path, itself strictly forbidden as “work.” Hungry, they plucked a few ears of grain and rubbed them between their hands to get out the kernels of grain. While they only took a tiny amount, their “reaping and threshing” motion was considered work. Hence the Pharisees outrage – they were working on the Sabbath.

Trinity Sunday, Year B

Holy, Holy, Holy

• Isaiah 6:1-8
• Psalm 29 or Canticle 2 or Canticle 13
• Romans 8:12-17
• John 3:1-7

Trinity Sunday is different from most feast days on the liturgical calendar because it celebrates a doctrine of the Church rather than an event in Jesus’ life. The Trinity is the Church’s answer to theological questions that were raised during the first three centuries C.E. and still persist today. Even after the formulation of all the Creeds, much remained to be done to reach a full definition. Scripture contains hints of the threefold nature of God; but nowhere in the New Testament is there a complete, explicit statement that tells us everything there is to know about the Trinity. However, today’s texts give us some understanding of the mystery of God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

The Feast of Pentecost, Year B

The gift of the Holy Spirit empowers Christians for ministry in the world.

• Acts of the Apostles 2:1-21 or
• Ezekiel 37:1-14
• Psalm 104:25-35, 37
• Romans 8:22-27
• John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15

God has opened the hearts of the faithful people by sending them the light of his Holy Spirit. We pray that God will give us right judgement in all things and joy in the strengthening of the Holy Spirit.

In today’s reading from Acts of the Apostles, we hear of the experience of the apostles on the Day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit filled them and they were able to tell people of “every nation” under heaven in their own languages the great things God has done for us.

The church began in the passionate blaze of the Spirit, when boundaries of languages and cultures were transcended for a time and all heard the good news in their own language. The consuming fervor of the disciples communicated itself to all who encountered them and allowed for the remarkable spread of the Gospel throughout the known world.

Ascension Day – All Years

Salvador Dali. Ascension. 1958. Oil on canvas.

• Acts 1:1-11
• Psalm 47 OR Psalm 93
• Ephesians 1:15-23
• Luke 14:44-53

Jesus promised his disciples to send them his Father’s promised gift – the Holy Spirit. He led them to Bethany and blessed them with his hands raised. As he blessed them he parted from them, and was carried to heaven.

Belief in Christ’s ascension is an important element in our creeds, including the Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creed. We often pray to God “through Christ” as a recognition that Christ intercedes for us “at the right hand of the Father.” The familiar refrain that closes many of our prayers and collects captures this image:

The Sixth Sunday of Easter, Year B

Love One Another as Friends

• Acts of the Apostles 10:44-48
• Psalm 98
• 1 John 5:1-6
• John 15:9-17

Today’s theme is of the new community formed out of the resurrection and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the life of that community that is grounded in love. Today’s Gospel and Epistle (Letter of John) emphasize the relationship between Christian love and obedience. It all begins with the love of God for us – love that comes to us through the Son. By entering our lives, Jesus brings the love of the Father to us.

We know that we are children of God by loving and obeying God’s commandments. These commandments are not burdens to be born, but the way of life and fulfillment (1 John 5:3). Trust in Jesus as the Messiah also brings privileges of adoption – of being made a child of God. As members of God’s family, disciples learn how to keep the commandments.

The Fifth Sunday of Easter, Year B

Vines and Branches

• Acts of the Apostles
• Psalm 22:24-30
• 1 John 4:7-21
• John 15:1-8

What is to be done with branches that bear no fruit?

Jesus’ seventh, final “I am” statement is featured in today’s Gospel. The desired relationship between Jesus and his followers is more easily illustrated that explained.

Not only did the disciples understand the image of a vine in its natural setting, they also understood the rich significance it carried from its use in Old Testament writing. The figure of a vine had often been used by the prophets to symbolize Israel and to demonstrate the relationship between Israel and God (Psalm 80:8-16 and Jeremiah 2:21). Isaiah’s song of God’s vineyard is perhaps the best known and demonstrates God’s sorrow over the failure of the vineyard to produce good grapes (Isaiah 5:1-7). What Israel, as God’s servant, was called to be (Isaiah 49:6), Jesus now is.

Easter Day: Year B

Jesus is Risen!

• Isaiah 25:6-9
• Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24
• 1 Corinthians 15:1-11
• Mark 16:1-8

Today is the most important day of the Christian calendar. It is the Feast of the Resurrection – a point upon which all our faith is grounded. Three women approach the tomb early in the morning as Jesus’ “follow me” has brought them to a journey’s end where they anticipate sadness and mourning as they perform the last service of honor to the dead.

Mary Gordon states in Incarnation: Contemporary Writers on the New Testament (Viking Press, 1990): But Mark, the harshest, the sparest of the Gospel writers, give us an unhopeful Easter. Many scholars believe that the manuscript actually ended with a failure of nerve. The women, seeing the angel at the empty tomb, are terrified. The angel tells them to bring the message of Christ’s resurrection to the disciples, but they don’t. It is believed that the original manuscript ended with this verse: “Then they went out and ran away from the tomb, beside themselves with terror. They said nothing to anybody but they were afraid.”

Good Friday

It is finished.

• Isaiah 52:13 – 53:12
• Psalm 22:1-21
• Hebrews 10:16-25 or Hebrews 4:14-16; 5:7-9
• John 18:1 – 19:40

Good Friday commemorates the crucifixion of our Lord. It is known as “Good” because of the new life brought about by Christ’s victory of the cross. The principle theme of Holy Week is Jesus’ passion: “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:13). Jesus gives his life to save us from sin and death. 

The New Testament draws heavily on the sacrificial of the temple in describing the unique role of Jesus in bringing salvation through the cross. Paschal lambs were sacrificed at Passover, and Jesus’ death on the cross was seen in the light of that temple practice. He is the true paschal Lamb offered, finally, for the sins of the whole world. Without that background of temple practice, some of the language about Jesus’ death and its significance will not be clear. It may be helpful, therefore, to take time this week to study the temple in the days of Jesus.