Proper 23 | Ordinary Time 28, Cycle B
Most of our attention both exegetically and homiletically in preparation for next Sunday should probably be focused on Amos 5:6-7, 10-15 and Mark 10:17-31. These two tests provide similar prescriptions for life. “If you wish to live,” they both say, “seek the Lord God, who is good, for the Lord God gives life!” What are [...]
Proper 18 | Ordinary Time 23, Cycle B
As if to compensate for the paucity of direct proclamation of the gospel in the texts that were used last Sunday, those who selected the readings for this lectionary have provided clear expressions of the gospel in the texts selected for next Sunday. As we read these texts, it is as if we are in Eden in an orchard filled with many varieties of fresh fruit that is ours for the picking! From among these rich resources we can pick as much as we can use and give away this week and next Sunday.
Proper 17 | Ordinary Time 22, Cycle B
This is one of the relatively few occasions within use of The Revised Common Lectionary in which there is, strictly speaking, no “gospel” in the Gospel selection chosen and not much “gospel” in the other texts either. Mark 7:15 is a wisdom saying that may be from the Jesus of history, “There is nothing outside [...]
Proper 16 | Ordinary Time 21, Cycle B
John 6:56-69 In this segment of the John 6 “bread from heaven” discourse, there is no fully developed covenant and naturalization ceremony comparable to what we see in Joshua 24. This is not surprising, since Christianity did not become a civil religion, a state religion, the religion accepted and imposed upon all who live in [...]
Proper 15 | Ordinary Time 20, Cycle B
John 6:51-58 This text selection continues to advance the claims of the Johannine Jesus to be the true bread from heaven that is incorporated into the earlier portions of John 6. In some congregations and denominations the words in John 6:53, “Jesus said to them, ‘If you do not eat the flesh of the Son [...]
