Reflections on the Revised Common Lectionary for September.
Living the Word
Living the Word is a monthly reflection on the Sunday readings from the Revised Common Lectionary.
Robert Roth 8-01-2006
It is natural for people of faith to ally with secular organizations and approaches. We may even see the spirit of God in movements that bring life and hope.
Robert Roth 7-01-2006
These five weeks of passages extol the depth, breadth, and living power of shalom—the biblical peace for humanity and all that lives.
Robert Roth 5-01-2006
Love binds and builds, heals and hallows, redeems and restores. A broken world can expect all this and more, say our Johannine scriptures, when God’s power courses mystically through human events. John 10 finds the shepherd Jesus foretelling self-sacrificial love for the sheep. In John 15, Jesus calls the faithful to be willing to lay down their lives for their friends.
1 John 4 focuses on the intimate nature of God’s love for us, which evokes our love for others, while the next chapter equates the love of God with keeping the divine commandments. On the stage of Acts 1, 4, 8, and 10, the fruit-bearing and inclusive nature of divinely inspired love is dramatized by the great cast that is the early church.
This month’s passages offer both a head-on command to love and a traveler’s guide to the nature of love itself. John makes up only 10 percent of the New Testament, yet it provides a full third of the references to love. “Love” appears in John more often as a verb than a noun. Feelings won’t suffice. Actions must prevail.
The Holy One leads us beside still waters and restores our souls, whether we are Gentiles, eunuchs, or the homeless of Detroit. This power of life originates from God in every moment, forming living, healthy relationships.
God chose to enter history and love us. We must choose to love others and head into a world that doesn’t like those who love unconditionally.
Robert Roth 4-01-2006
Peter's denials and Judas' betrayal foreshadow the reactionary horror to come.
Robert Roth 3-01-2006
Covenants order our lives, our faith communities, and, in the best of times, our nations. The promises and agreements God makes to us, and that we make to one another, are sometimes made binding by oaths or rituals. Sometimes God simply sends someone down from the mountain with a covenant fully formed and sealed.
Robert Roth 2-01-2006
Is 'Get Rich or Die Tryin' just a current movie or is it also a national mantra?
Robert Roth 1-01-2006
In Kashmir, Niger, Honduras, and parts of every U.S. city, the situation is urgent. Thankfully, so is God’s persistent love.
Robert Roth 11-01-2005
Whenever you helped the needy - or ignored the poor - Jesus said, "you did it to me."
Robert Roth 9-01-2005
Jesus sums up faithfulness as being other-oriented. It's about God. It's about the neighbor.
Robert Roth 7-01-2005
When the faithful welcome the breaking of Gods word into relationships, politics, and economics, hope arrives. Adopted as Gods sons and daughters, people begin to make the reign of God their greatest loyalty.
Robert Roth 6-01-2005
The most serious of events can seem, well, funny at the time. Encountering Gods transformative actions directly, the first human response can be to break down into laughter.
Paula Gooder 5-01-2005
When watching sports, Im always most impressed by the decathletes. Those who are able to compete skillfully in such a range of athletic events are awe-inspiring. Not only can they perform a variety of skills well, but they also are able to switch easily from one to another. The readings this month
Paula Gooder 4-01-2005
It is often said that what you pay for something affects how much you value it. In other words, the more you pay, the more you cherish it. I suspect that the reverse is also true: the things you cherish the most are the things for which you are prepared to
Paula Gooder 3-01-2005
The resurrection makes hope a permanent and immovable feature of the new creature in which we now dwell.
Paula Gooder 1-01-2005
Have you ever sat and watched a moth drawn into a light bulb? The moth simply cannot help but be drawn to the bulb’s brilliance. The season of Epiphany celebrates a theme a little like this - only we are the moths and the bulb is God’s glory. Throughout Epiphany we encounter again and again the inexorable attraction of God. Whenever God’s glory is revealed in the world, people, from the greatest to the least, are drawn to its brightness. Whether they are the kings and nations of Isaiah 60:1-6, the Magi of Matthew 2:1-12, the people to whom John the Baptist speaks in John 1:29-42, or the disciples of Matthew 5:1-12, all are drawn to the glory of God.
This pull is strongest when God’s glory is most apparent, so the Magi and the first disciples cannot resist being drawn into worship and obedience. Throughout history the people of God have struggled to reveal God’s glory to the world. We seem to be much better at concealing it - by keeping it to ourselves, squabbling about it, and sometimes even ignoring it entirely. The season of Epiphany not only challenges us afresh to feel the pull of God on our own lives but to seek constantly for ways in which we can reveal God to the world. Just think about what the world could look like if we succeed!