Today in the Spirit green

Today in the Spirit: Proper 4B

Posted on May 26, 2024
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In our walk with Jesus through the lectionary year, the โ€œordinaryโ€ (numbered) season โ€œAfter Pentecostโ€ generally begins with Gospel selections highlighting the teachings and events of our Lordโ€™s life after the calling of the disciples (the calling itself being featured in Epiphany). As the Gospel of Mark exposes the reader early on to Jesusโ€™ conflict…

Today in the Spirit: Trinity Sunday B

Posted on May 19, 2024
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The Church of England, from its beginning, established Trinity Sunday as a principal feast on the church calendar, the Sunday following Pentecost Sunday (Whitsunday), and before the Sundays that followed during the long โ€œordinaryโ€ (numbered) phase of Sundays After Pentecost (or After Trinity). The assigned readings for Trinity Sunday are different in each of the…

Today in the Spirit: Pentecost Sunday B (Whitsunday)

Posted on May 12, 2024
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โ€œPentecost Sunday already!?โ€ While this might well be our reaction to the arrival of this feast day on the church calendar every year, we can only imagine how the disciples felt when Jesus ordered them to go to Jerusalem and wait until you are clothed with power from on high  (Luke 24:49). As they gathered…

Today in the Spirit: Easter 7B (The Sunday After Ascension)

Posted on May 5, 2024
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As opposed to the Ascension Day readings, which center around the narrative of the event itself, the Sunday after Ascension Day (never Easter 7 as in the BCP 2019) assignments focus more on the implications of Christโ€™s ascending and taking the throne with the Father for the life of the believer. Particularly in Year B,…

What Do People Look For in a New Church? (Suddenly Surging Part 3)

Posted on April 30, 2024
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(Part three of five in David Roseberry’s Suddenly Surging series on church growth.) A friend once shared a valuable lesson she learned from a performance review at her previous job. Although her position was secure, her boss wanted to address a specific personality trait that he found bothersome. When given a task, she tended to…

Today in the Spirit: Easter 6B

Posted on April 28, 2024
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As much as any other set of readings for a Sunday, the Easter 6 schedule puts on display the influence the love of the Father God has over those who believe in the Son. The assigned Gospel reading out of John 15:9-17 sets the tone. After teaching his disciples, I am the true vineโ€ฆ and…

Today in the Spirit: Easter 5B

Posted on April 21, 2024
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On Easter 5 every year, the church moves us hard toward the mindset of expectation for the coming of the Holy Spirit. To get us there, the lectionary puts forward Jesusโ€™ most explicit teaching on this matter, as found in the Last Supper discourse in John 14-16. For Easter 5B, the Gospel selection is John…

Today in the Spirit: Easter 4B (Good Shepherd)

Posted on April 14, 2024
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By the end of Easter 3, the Sunday lectionary has covered all the post-resurrection appearances of Jesus recorded in Luke and John; so at Easter 4, the church makes a shift in the assignment of Gospel readings to those of our Lordโ€™s teaching about the new life of the kingdom of God under his reign…

Today in the Spirit: Easter 3B

Posted on April 8, 2024
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We continue in the Easter season with readings appropriate for the celebration of the resurrection of our Lord. The assigned Gospel reading from Luke 24:36-49 appears to be Lukeโ€™s version of the initial post-resurrection visit by Jesus to his disciples, which we heard last Sunday from John 20. If that is the case, Lukeโ€™s narrative…

Today in the Spirit: Easter 2B

Posted on March 31, 2024
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The seven Sundays after Easter Day (including Pentecost Sunday) is the space the church uses to walk the believing community through Jesusโ€™ resurrection appearances as revealed in the NT or his important teaching delivered before his death about living life by his resurrection power. The bulk of this material is found in Luke and John,…