Introduction This message is primarily directed to my friends for whom the word “lectionary” sounds like a disease. I, too, once shared your visceral shudder when someone uttered the phrase “lectionary preacher.” At the time, my cursory thoughts about lectionary...
I know that not all of us come from so-called “liturgical” traditions, but all of us do use a liturgy of sorts. Liturgy is a compound Greek word meaning “public work” that is associated with the corporate act of worship. A liturgy is any expression of that public...
One of the three diabolical tests of Jesus in the Judean wilderness is the “temptation to be powerful” as Henri Nouwen puts it in his 1989 reflection on Christian leadership, “In the Name of Jesus.” Satan’s offer to grant Jesus subordinate authority over the kingdoms...