ON Scripture is a weekly blog that addresses the Revised Common Lectionary texts for the week through the lens of current events. Developed by Odyssey Networks, it is written by noted church leaders and scholars.
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Odyssey Networks
ON Scripture
Odyssey Networks
ON Scripture is a weekly blog that addresses the Revised Common Lectionary texts for the week through the lens of current events. Developed by Odyssey Networks, it is written by noted church leaders and scholars.
Latest Content by ON Scripture
ON Scripture
Psalm 1: Putting Evil in Its Place
By Dr. Amy Erickson
Psalm 1 begins and ends in a way that puts a lot people off, particularly those who are less-than-compelled by fire and brimstone preaching: "Happy are those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or take the path that sinners tread" (v 1) and "the Lord watches over the way of the righteous but the way of the wicked will perish" (v 6).
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Other Recent Content by ON Scripture
May 09, 2012
ON Scripture
When Peter declared, “God shows no partiality,” he opened the possibility that anyone—everyone—is welcome in the family of faith. He also put us on warning: the rules were changed for you, so that you could come in—who are you, then, to prevent God from blessing the whole human family? Who are you to stand in the way of God’s love?
May 02, 2012
ON Scripture
Some people call them “thin places,” locations where the gulf between heaven and earth narrows and we fully sense God’s presence.... Though these thin places are inherently unpredictable, we can aid in their creation. Like Philip in Acts 8, we can run to join what the Spirit is already making possible.
April 25, 2012
ON Scripture
What shape does God’s presence take in our lives? Here a reading in 1 John 3:16-24 is most helpful. This passage points to Jesus’ sacrifice as the ultimate embodiment of God’s love for us. That Jesus laid down his life for us, however, comes with a price.
April 18, 2012
ON Scripture
Everyone knows about Easter morning. Many also know the story of Easter afternoon — the walk to Emmaus. But how about Easter evening? Who knows what happens then? Luke’s story of Jesus appearing to his disciples in Jerusalem is less well known, but is equally important. It revolves around a table instead of a tomb.
April 11, 2012
ON Scripture
In this week's ON Scripture lectionary resource, Lisa Nichols Hickman focuses on the story of Doubting Thomas in John 20:19-31: Easter faith is not about certainty. The reality of Easter is the complexity of living anew in a broken creation.
April 04, 2012
ON Scripture
In this week's ON Scripture lectionary resource, the Rev. Dr. Barbara K. Lundblad explores Mark's account of the resurrection, and what it tells us about how we tell the story.
March 28, 2012
ON Scripture
The Trayvon Martin story is tragic for many reasons.... As Christians move into the week that most defines our faith, a week of remembering and reliving Jesus’ death and resurrection, this idea of a broken system provides an poignant setting for us to consider the ongoing significance of what happened to him nearly 2000 years ago.
March 21, 2012
ON Scripture
In this week's ON Scripture lectionary resource, Dirk Lange writes, "The journey to the cross is not a glorification of death. Jesus invites us into a disruption of our tightly sealed, self-contained, seed-like identity into a God-given identity, blossoming in communion."
March 14, 2012
ON Scripture
In her lectionary resource for this week, the Rev. Dr. Margaret Aymer writes, "Notice the open invitation in John 3:14-15: anyone who believes. This seemingly open invitation continues throughout this most over-cited of biblical passages: John 3:16.... But then, in John 3:18, the velvet rope appears."
March 07, 2012
ON Scripture
Maybe the most divisive religious statements are the ones that make claims about how and where God can be found. Disagreements among people of faith today remind us that disputes over God’s “accessibility” never go away. Jesus’ conflicts with the authorities of his day remind us that such controversies are nothing new.
February 29, 2012
ON Scripture
God’s name- and game-changing relationship with Abraham and Sarah was described as a “covenant.” .... Mark’s gospel claims that God’s ultimate covenant with the creation had to be forged on a cross and is sealed by Jesus’ blood (Mk. 14:24).
February 22, 2012
The Rev. Dr. Stephanie Crowder
(CC(DC))
I am not a Janet Jackson aficionado, but her song, “The Pleasure Principle” from 1987 has a few lines that are still appealing almost 25 years later: “I’m not here to feed your insecurities. I wanted you to love me...It’s the pleasure principle.”
February 15, 2012
ON Scripture
In this week's ON Scripture lectionary resource, the Rev. Barbara K. Lundblad writes, "The transfiguration story from Mark 9 is a story we often try to explain. What happened on that mountain when Jesus went to pray with Peter, James and John?"
February 08, 2012
ON Scripture
In this week's ON Scripture lectionary resource, the Rev. Dr. Matthew Skinner reveals that exploring Jesus’ concern for the poor and excluded reminds us of the close connections among wealth, health, and social acceptability.
February 01, 2012
ON Scripture
This Sunday, tens of millions of people will watch the New England Patriots and the New York Giants face off in the Super Bowl. And as it happens, the Scripture reading appointed for worship is Isaiah 40:21-31...
January 25, 2012
ON Scripture
In our lectionary text from Mark this week, we encounter a crowd and a speaker, a scenario not unlike what is taking place in today’s political landscape. However, there is a twist on this seemingly familiar event.
January 18, 2012
ON Scripture
Readers almost always gravitate to the same question. Why do Simon and Andrew, then James and John after them, abandon everything to follow Jesus? Mark leaves no doubt as to the immediacy of their response.
January 11, 2012
ON Scripture
God speaks. We serve. But the first task of a prophet is to listen. Prayer and protest are married yet this does not mean that one sits in a pew of passivity and does not act. The witness of Dr. King shows otherwise.
January 04, 2012
ON Scripture
Christians seem to have a genetic disposition for describing people and events through a biblical lens. It makes sense. We are story-formed people, and the Bible shapes our political, moral and social imaginations.
December 28, 2011
ON Scripture
The enactment of religious rituals for children in the Jewish faith of Jesus’ time is the background of this only biblical glimpse we have of Jesus’ early infancy. This luminous text of hope from Luke’s Gospel is pictorial in its rendering of Jesus presentation at the temple.
December 21, 2011
ON Scripture
"If there is a war on Christmas, I think the assault is both more subtle and more pernicious than these perplexed conspiracy theories."
December 14, 2011
ON Scripture
What does it mean to wait for God in a broken world? What does it mean to wait in a time in which God’s promise of redemption is met by the despair of the poor, the greed of those who exploit others, and the rage of those who commit violence? What does Advent mean for the real world?
December 07, 2011
ON Scripture
The fear about exposure and judgment comes to white hot focus in a remarkable biblical story, told early in the Gospel of John, about an investigative team dispatched from the capital city to interrogate an enigmatic preacher named John the Baptizer.
November 30, 2011
ON Scripture
In this week's ON Scripture lectionary resource, Dr. Michael Joseph Brown delves into Mark 1:1-8 and finds God can be an abrupt and unsettling force in our lives.
November 23, 2011
ON Scripture
Here comes Black Friday, even earlier than usual. Bell-ringers are appearing outside stores. Advertisers are shifting the consumerism-as-therapy machine into high gear. And Christians say: This is a good time to think about the world falling apart. We’re not trying to be morose. We’re starting Advent.
November 16, 2011
ON Scripture
If Ezekiel were among us now, he might well conclude that the emergence of the “99%” is a scourge from God that intends to expose and bring down social policies, practices, and institutions that are out of sync with God’s will for shalom.
November 09, 2011
ON Scripture
In this week's ON Scripture lectionary resource, noted scholar Dr. Walter Brueggemann examines Zephaniah 1: "This poem features extravagant language about a coming time of loss, disaster, distress, and suffering."
November 02, 2011
ON Scripture
This week’s text, Joshua 24: 1-3a, 14-25, features a great dramatic meeting as the culmination of arriving in the land of promise. Read Dr. Walter Brueggemann's lectionary reflections.
October 26, 2011
ON Scripture
Noted theologian Dr. Walter Brueggemann begins a four-part series for the ON Scripture lectionary resource by focusing on Jeremiah 31:31-34.
October 19, 2011
ON Scripture
This week's ON Scripture lectionary resource: New Testament professor Jaime Clark-Soles on Matthew 22:34-46: Loving God, loving neighbor, and the Occupy Wall Street movement.
October 12, 2011
ON Scripture
It couldn’t hurt for Jesus to show up and weigh in on America’s current economic and political challenges. It might be helpful if he issued a declaration about who should pay taxes, and how much. Then again, this would likely get him killed all over again.
October 05, 2011
The Rev. Dr. Stephanie Crowder
(CC(DC))
Much in this country’s political landscape from Populist ideology to New Deal praxis has centered on equal access and opportunity for all. Yet, almost two thousand years earlier than these movements, first century C.E. New Testament literature points to similar struggles.
September 28, 2011
ON Scripture
How many of the Ten Commandments can you name? If you are like most Americans, the number is far below the full ten. A 2007 survey reported that most Americans could rattle off the ingredients of a Big Mac more readily than the Ten Commandments
September 21, 2011
ON Scripture
In this week's ON Scripture lectionary resource, Dr. Greg Carey writes, "Ezekiel speaks compellingly to the current situation in the United States. But is the prophet’s message true?"
September 14, 2011
ON Scripture
Our notions of justice usually cannot help but be influenced by our own circumstances and by our opinions about what we and others deserve. We insist justice has to do with equality, but a lot of the time it's a word we toss around to keep people and things we don't like at bay. And then along comes Jesus, eager to mess even more with our regular attitudes about what's right or fair.
September 07, 2011
ON Scripture
We haven’t had any clear victories to sing about since September 11, 2001. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were ambiguous from the start and drag on to this day. Thousands have been killed, both soldiers and civilians. While many cheered the death of Osama bin Laden, his death has not turned sorrow into joy or filled an empty place at the table. What song shall we sing now?
August 31, 2011
ON Scripture
Matthew 18:15-20 is an insider's text for outsiders. From Matthew's perspective, Jesus is both warning and assuring those inside the young Christian church. It is a church, however, whose members stand outside the main streams of both religious and civil practice.
August 24, 2011
ON Scripture
In this week's ON Scripture column, Dr. Greg Carey writes, "Few Christians abandon everything for the gospel’s sake. Most of us simply fit our Christianity into the open spots on our calendars. But in this passage Jesus links the life of discipleship with his own path."
