Living by the Word

Reflections on the lectionary readings by pastors, preachers and biblical scholars

Photo by Mary Harrsch

Sunday, May 26, 2013

Proverbs 8:1–4, 22–31; Romans 5:1–5; John 16:12–15

May 14, 2013 by Barry Howard

I was raised in a region heavily influenced by the Baptist Sandy Creek tradition, so I didn’t hear the “Gloria Patri” sung in a Baptist church until I was the pastor and included it in worship.

Sunday, May 19, 2013

Acts 2:1–21; Romans 8:14–17; John 14:8–17 (25–27)

May 07, 2013 by Barry Howard

My first notions of the spirit world came not from the Bible, but from 13 Alabama Ghosts and Jeffrey, a collection of ghost stories written by Kathryn Tucker Windham and Margaret Gillis Figh. When I was in fourth grade I gave a report on this book.

Sunday, May 12, 2013

Revelation 22:12–14, 16–17, 20–21; John 17:20–26

Apr 30, 2013 by Barbara Rossing

Barbara Kingsolver explores the dystopic effects of climate change in Flight Behavior, a novel about a family and community struggling through the rainiest winter in memory.

Ascension of the Lord, May 9, 2013

Acts 1:1–11; Luke 24:44–53

Apr 23, 2013 by Barbara Rossing

The Augusta Victoria Hospital sits on the highest point of the Mount of Olives, one of the sites claimed to be the place from which Jesus ascended into heaven. Administered by the Lutheran World Federation, hospital staff serve Palestinians who are living in the midst of occupation.

Sunday, April 28, 2013

John 13:31–35

Apr 16, 2013 by Robert Rimbo

The people in an Ohio county were angry with the area’s red foxes because they had eaten some of the people’s domestic chickens and many of the wild quail. So 600 men, women and children formed a circle five miles across, walked through the woods and frightened the foxes out into the open by shouting. Inside of a shrinking circle the foxes ran about in panic, exhausting themselves.