We come to the end of our Lectionary Year. Every symphony has its crescendo and finale and the Sunday of Christ the King is that for the lectionary year. All our readings look toward the end of things brought to completion by the King of Kings. David’s final words. Daniel’s final vision. Revelation’s NT version of that, much of it a recycling of OT…

We are approaching the end of the lectionary year B, and as noted, we have this Sunday a reading from the apocalyptic portion of Mark, which in its entirety runs for some 37 verses. Our selection is but the brief, opening portion of that. Also as noted, the focus on the end times, at the end of the lectionary year, which has its correlates in Matth…

In our lessons for this Sunday, the conclusion from the book of Ruth wraps up Track One’s brief summary of that marvelous brief work, and joins to it an equally uplifting psalm 127. In Track Two the reading from 1 Kings 17, Elijah and the widow from Zarephath, has been chosen to come alongside Jesus’ bold commendation of the widow, who “out of pove…

I want to stop and take stock of where we are in the lectionary year. November provides the final four segments of Year B, years that typically end with the dramatic Second Coming readings from each of the three synoptic Gospels, this year represented by Mark 13. The lectionary obviously has us heading toward Jerusalem and Jesus teaching along the …

We have reached a major turning point in Mark’s Gospel. Indeed the major turning point. Jesus is about to enter Jerusalem to face the fate he has been promising will be his, and whose details have been given most recently down to specifics. The disciples persist in various forms of blindness and half-blindness, but doggedly he instructs them and th…

Six Sundays ago, our reading was the first passion prediction, and this Sunday’s reading follows the third and final one of the set. We also noted that this particular section of Mark is framed by two healing stories involving blindness, in 8:22-26 and following our reading for this Sunday, in 10:46-52, the healing of blind Bartimaeus. Prior to thi…

We continue our Track One readings from the Book of Job; the Epistle reading from Hebrews; Track Two’s Amos and Mark pairing, and accompanying psalms. Job endures three rounds of dialogues with his friends, who after sitting seven days in silence at his dilemma, open their mouths. And open them they do. I take the view that the rounds are not stati…

There is a good deal of symphonic overlay in our lessons for this Sunday. This is due to the recycling of texts across our readings, as the Bible speaks from depth to depth, as it so often does! That is its genius. A book unlike any other book. Jesus cites verses that appear in Genesis 1 (God made them male and female) and Genesis 2 (For this reaso…

After hearing last week of the woman of valor, from the last chapter of Proverbs, I spoke of the clear evocation of Ruth, who is called by the same term by Boaz in the book which follows Proverbs in Hebrew lists. Valiant she is. And Track One will turn to her in weeks to come. For this Sunday we have another of the strong women of valor from the OT…

We skip over the Transfiguration (it is read on the last Sunday before the Lenten season starts) and the healing of the epileptic to arrive at the second passion prediction. In all three of these scenes we have misunderstandings by the disciples, to various degrees, from rebuke to arguments concerning rank, each followed by Jesus’ correction. Episo…

We now come to a major transitional section in the middle of the Gospel of Mark. The threefold passion prediction of Jesus, today, next week in chapter nine, and again in chapter ten, provides the steady rhythm line. Jesus activity in Galilee—his rapid fire activity in chapter one, his healings and teachings, on two sides of the Sea of Galilee and …

We continue our slow walk alongside Jesus in Mark’s narrative portrayal, back and forth across the Sea of Galilee, Jewish and Gentile sides, and now widening his trajectory and entering the historically prosperous coastal regions of Tyre and Sidon, and on into the Decapolis. Track One likewise continues to march through the literature associated wi…

The feeding of the five thousand is the only miracle recorded by all four Gospels. Our year B Gospel of Mark and the Gospel of John share as well the account of a fearsome sea crossing, which follows it, and in which Jesus comes to the disciples walking on the water. In John, this mysterious boat-less night crossing of the Sea of Galilee by Jesus l…

Our Gospel reading for the 9th Sunday after Pentecost has clearly omitted a major section in the middle of the sixth chapter of Mark, some 20 verses, so as to let the focus fall on Jesus boat crossing with his disciples/apostles and his compassion on the crowds seeking to be in his healing presence. Left out here in Mark is the feeding of the five …

When we left David last week the tribes of all Israel had rallied around him, and his kingship effectively began. Only the lame Mepibosheth from the House of Saul remained alive. This Sunday marks the movement of the ark of the covenant to Jerusalem, where there is as yet no temple, but the religious significance of Jerusalem for what will become t…

Our readings for the 7th Sunday after Pentecost, for 8 July, are in Track One a continuation of our walk through Samuel, paired with Psalm 48. In Track Two a reading from Ezekiel paired with Psalm 123 and the Gospel of Mark Chapter 6. And the Epistle reading for both tracks from the 12th chapter of Second Corinthians. With the death of Saul, the dr…

For our Pentecost readings in Track I over the past weeks, we have been supplied with four key episodes from the first 17 chapters of that book: the Call of Samuel, the Request for a King, the Selection and Anointing of David, and David and Goliath. Today we cross over the entire remaining chapters—14 all told—to the account of the death of Saul an…

On the face of it the transition from the parable instruction of Jesus to the crowds, with private tutorials for the disciples, to the stilling of the sea in today’s reading seems abrupt. The address of Jesus as “teacher” offers some help but still makes for a very different classroom in a boat at sea. Nothing parabolic but indeed quite real in a s…

For the 4th Sunday after Pentecost we continue our 1 Samuel readings, Epistle texts from 2 Corinthians, two short parables from the Gospel of Mark, paired with OT equivalents in the form of Ezekiel’s allegory/parable/riddle concerning the great cedar, and the Psalms of response keyed to the two different OT readings. For last Sunday we tried to sum…

Our readings for the 3rd Sunday after Pentecost are, for both tracks, a portion of Mark 3—the confrontation between Jesus and certain scribes come down from Jerusalem—the continuous Epistle reading from 2 Corinthians 4, a portion from 1 Samuel paired with Psalm 138, and for the complementary Track 2 a text from Genesis with Psalm 130 chosen to emph…

For the first 22 Sundays of the Christian Year–through Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, and Pentecost and Trinity Sundays—we have followed a consistent lectionary pattern. Easter was an exception given the use of Acts as the first lesson and a roughly continuous reading through 1 John. That pattern involves a first OT reading and Psalm which have…

Trinity Sunday is the one Sunday of the year dedicated to the mature confession, following on from the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, that God is three in one, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. The collect for the day lines it out: to confess the true faith is to acknowledge the glory of the eternal Trinity, and in the power of the di…

For every year of the three year lectionary readings for the Day of Pentecost, the Gospel is taken from John, and those sections in chapters 14-16 dealing with the Holy Spirit. The Paraclete, Comforter, Counselor, Advocate, sent by the Father in the Son’s name, who will be present with them as he has been present thus far, but more so. They are not…

We arrive this Sunday at the last set of readings before Pentecost, those chosen for the final, 7th Sunday of the Easter season. In each of the three different lectionary years, portions of John 17 are read on this final Sunday, from what is called Jesus’ High Priestly prayer, as the Gospel reading. A final portion from 1 John is the Epistle and th…

We’ve come to the penultimate Sunday of the Easter season, the sixth Sunday, the week in which Ascension falls. Forty days after the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Next Sunday is the final Sunday before Pentecost. Our lessons come from, as usual, the Acts of the Apostles, chapter 10 this week, the final section of the story of Cornelius’ conversion.…

In the symphony of scripture for the 5th Sunday of Easter, we continue our selected readings from the Acts of the Apostles, joined by portions of First John. As noted before, because Acts is shared across all three lectionary years, the selections are often made intentionally so as to come alongside the other readings; we saw this last week. Today …

The lessons chosen for the 4th Sunday of Easter are taken from Acts, chapter 4; the 23rd Psalm; First John chapter 3; and the Gospel of John chapter 10. The Gospel reading should alert us that we are moving away from resurrection accounts such as we have had them from the end of the synoptic Gospels and John and into new terrain. So first a word ab…

As discussed last week, a pattern can be observed in the selection of readings during the Easter season. Instead of a first, OT reading we have selections from the Acts of the Apostles. The second lesson is a semi-continuous reading: from 1 Peter in Year A, Revelation in Year C, and this year, from First John. This makes for a different kind of sym…

For the crescendo Sundays of Palm Sunday and Easter, the readings chosen and their relationship to each other are straightforward and clear to the point of overflowing. There is a lot of good material to choose from and work with. The symphony soars. Let’s take a moment to look ahead a bit now, as Easter is not only a single decisive day, but for c…

We have a rich symphony of lessons to choose from on Easter Sunday. More so than on other Sundays due to the several choices offered. The resurrection account from John or what is often called the shorter version from Mark. Shorter because the manuscript history shows that Mark could end here, at verse 8, with the astonishment of the three women wi…

We should by now have gotten used to the rapidly moving, briskly paced, ‘and immediately Jesus…’ style of Mark’s Gospel. Chapter One is exhibit A. So that when we arrive at the account of events leading up to Jesus’ death, and the crucifixion itself, overwhelming is just the opposite. Things slow down, enormous detail is provided, and we are presen…

The fifth Sunday of Lent is the next-to-final Sunday of the season. The last Sunday before the culminating Passion Week, which opens with the reading of the extended passion narrative, this year from Mark. We stay in John’s Gospel for one final time this fifth Sunday, before returning there again in Eastertide. As we have noted, in John’s Gospel it…

Our lessons for the fourth Sunday of Lent are taken from Numbers 21, Psalm 107, Ephesians 2 and John 3. During Lent we continue with selections from the 4th Gospel instead of Mark, and the epistle reading has been chosen specifically to come alongside the familiar OT reading—Gospel link. Unlike last Sunday we have no subtle associations but manifes…

Upon leaving Mark’s Gospel for John, we enter a terrain with its own special features. Chief among them is Jesus’ confrontation with Jewish religious leaders at an earlier point than the synoptics. Whether the synoptics knew of things like earlier visits by Jesus for Passover, but preferred to let the emphasis fall on the final Passover encounter, …

The second Sunday of Lent in our Symphony of Scripture series. Our lessons are… The covenant with Abraham and Sarah in Genesis 17 Paul’s reflections on Abraham in Romans 4 9 verses of Psalm 22 The open announcement of Jesus in Mark 8 of his intention to go to Jerusalem The metaphor of a symphony commends itself because it describes so well the char…

The Gospel of Mark is notable for its brisk, compressed style, as we have seen. Especially in chapter one. The first Sunday of Lent is always the account of Jesus in the wilderness. Matthew and Luke give us 11 and 13 verse renditions. Mark has but two. The forty days, the three temptations back-and-forth between Jesus and Satan, is here a simple na…

As we noted last week, the final Sunday in Epiphany is either the fifth Sunday of the season or the ninth, depending on the date of Easter. The lesson chosen for it is always the Transfiguration. This year we have the account from Mark, chapter nine. Because of the significance, registered annually, of the Transfiguration, preparing us for the Lent…

We have come to the fifth Sunday after Epiphany and the sixth and final Sunday is next week. So too the direction of our readings will change. So a brief word about that. In the Christian Year Easter is of course the fixed moment, the GM line. And it found its place in time with reference to Passover and Jesus’ Last Supper. In time Easter was fixed…

The spirit immediately descends bodily upon Jesus coming out of the water. Immediately sends him, like the mighty Elijah at Sinai, forty days in the wilderness. To be road tested, and to show Satan in no uncertain terms his full authority now disclosed on earth. Immediately he calls others in the same Spirit, to walk and learn alongside him. And im…

Our three main readings for the third Sunday of Epiphany are all very short. Six verses from Jonah, 3 verses from 1 Corinthians, and 7 from the Gospel for the day, Mark 1:14-20, the calling of the Simon Peter, Andrew, James and John. The brevity suits the message. Punchy, direct, get down to business. The time is short, St Paul says. One thinks of …

The lessons for the second Sunday in Epiphany come from 1 Samuel, Psalm 139, the 6th chapter of First Corinthians, and John 1:43-51, the calling of Nathanael. This belongs to the theme of Jesus earthly ministry. Following his baptism, he called the disciples. Two things we should note. The NT reading from 1 Corinthians introduces the sequential wal…

We begin our series with the lessons chosen for the second Sunday of the New Year, January the 10th, traditionally associated with the start of the season of Epiphany. The season that shows the earthly Jesus in his ministry as teacher, healer, prophetic presence, son of God in power and in works of mercy. What I think is helpful is first go wide. G…

This episode discusses why passing judgement on young athletes who are still developing can hinder the athlete from reaching their potential. The episode also covers the role of patience in effective young athlete development and three approaches to consider for a better path for young athletes to fulfill their personal maximum potential.…

Missy engages in an energetic and informative conversation around the many layers of the current youth sports landscape. As the Owner of Higher Energy Rising Coaching, Missy uses her wealth of knowledge and experience gained through competing as a swimmer at the University of Michigan, working as an Attorney for the NCAA, and experiencing youth spo…

Natalie Morse shares a wealth of experiences as a former college basketball player, a former D1 college coach, an NCAA Specialist, and a basketball trainer for the Indiana Girls Basketball organization. Our conversation covers topics such as the player/coach/parent relationship, player evaluation/recruitment at the college level and how the process…

Alex candidly shares her experiences as a highly accomplished high school and college swimmer. Alex and Aaron dive into a plethora of topics including handling disappointment, her thoughts on how coaches can create a more positive competitive experience, how to balance athletics and academics to achieve success in both, and the realities of competi…

This episode discusses the importance of sports parents and youth/high school athletes working together to find clarity of purpose for the athletes sports journey.

This episode shares some reflections from my point of view as a parent and a youth sports coach on my daughter’s recently completed career as a young athlete.

This episode introduces questions and thoughts about how we are administering youth sports to the 6-12 year old age group. Are we doing what is best for the kids? Is the current youth sports format preparing athletes to be at their competitive peak, both mentally and physically, when they enter the teen years? Why do some parents and youth coaches …

This episode discusses the importance of taking advantage of the opportunities available to connect with our children available because of the youth and travel sports environment.