Holy Textures is a spot for my musings on the various Biblical texts that come our way through the Revised Common Lectionary.
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Year B - Season of Easter - 2012
As usual with the Season of Easter, we get to spend time with the Gospel of John.
I like to think of John as like a good day at the spa: Soaking in the swirling eddies and quiet back pools of his repetitive, non-sequitor, images and stories.
John wants us to really GET the life that is Jesus.
What could be more refreshing than that?
Easter Vigil
April 7, 2012
Mark 16:1-8
"It is women who witness the abject humiliation, degradation and torture of Jesus on the cross. It is women who hear him cry, "My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?" It is women who witness his death. It is women who follow and witness where his body is placed. And so, fittingly, it is women who are the first witnesses of the empty tomb, and the first to receive the good news: He is risen!"
Sermon: "."
Easter Day
April 8, 2012
John 20:1-18, Alternate Reading A
"As the Word descended from the Father and became flesh at the start of John's Gospel, Mary is experiencing the reverse process - of the flesh becoming Word."
Sermon: "The Rising."
Mark 16:1-8, Alternate Reading B
"It is women who witness the abject humiliation, degradation and torture of Jesus on the cross. It is women who hear him cry, "My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?" It is women who witness his death. It is women who follow and witness where his body is placed. And so, fittingly, it is women who are the first witnesses of the empty tomb, and the first to receive the good news: He is risen!"
Sermon "."
Easter Evening
April 8, 2012
Luke 24:13-49
"The details reported in Luke make it very clear that it was the same Jesus who was crucified who is now resurrected. And they are not seeing a ghost. However, Jesus-who-died-on-the-cross-and-is-now-resurrected has not come back simply to take up his old job. He now says: Over to you."
Sermon: "Road Trips."
Easter 2
April 15, 2012
John 20:19-31
"John doesn't care what we see with our eyeballs. He wants us to SEE with our inner eye who Jesus really is. That is why he has written these signs for us. That in SEEing, we might believe; and in believing, we might have the life that is in Jesus."
Sermon: "Can We Trust God?"
Easter 3
April 22, 2012
Luke 24:36b-48
"However, the Jesus-who-died-on-the-cross-and-has-been-raised has not come back simply to take up his old job. In effect the now-resurrected-Jesus says, 'Over to you.'"
Sermon: "Standing Near Greatness."
Easter 4
April 29, 2012
John 10:11-18
"Are you mourning today? Are you spiritually spent today? Are you afraid today? Is death nearby today? David and Jesus are here today inviting us to enlarge our frame and hold our grief, exhaustion and fear in a larger, deeper reality: God provides and guides and protects and restores."
Sermon: "Saying And Doing."
Easter 5
May 6, 2012
John 15:1-8
"When we love one another as Jesus loves us, we first learn from Jesus what love is. And having experienced being loved by Jesus – had that love heal, restore and renew the loving that was already in us – we then love others the same way."
Sermon: "The Seeker."
Easter 6
May 13, 2012
John 15:9-17
"So as we look around church on any given Sunday, we may see people that we know and like, know and don't like, or don't know at all. Whatever. Jesus is commanding us to regard each other as a friend, so that we might bear fruit, fruit that endures."
Sermon: "Friendship"
Ascension Day
May 17, 2012
Luke 24:44-53
"And as if to emphasize that this blessing of his disciples has not been finished - is still on-going - Luke tells us that: While he was blessing them, he withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven. (Luke 24:51) Might it not be that even in heaven Jesus-now-resurrected is still blessing his disciples?"
Sermon: "Discernment."
Easter 7
May 20, 2012
John 17:6-19
"Whenever we are offered a blessing in the Bible, we might be tempted to run and hide - because a blessing never comes without a God-sized mission. And God-sized missions never come without a cost."
Sermon: "."
Pentecost Sunday
May 27, 2012
Acts 2:1-21
"We might all hear the same words - each in our own language - but we will not all hear and understand exactly the same meaning. The problem with life, and faith, and following Jesus is always: What does this mean?"
Sermon: "All We Need Is Love."
John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15
"Whatever else we may want to say on this day of Pentecost about the Spirit, it is important to notice that Jesus always refers to the Spirit as the Spirit of truth. And in John truth is always the way, the life, the light, the joy, the friendship."
Sermon: "."
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