Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

LECTIO

Home
Progressive Christian

2015-08-28T10:13:00-07:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Faith, Works, and Being Human: The Lectionary for the Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Last updated on: August 28, 2015 at 10:13 am By Eric Smith

Proverbs 22:1-2, 8-9, 22-23 and/or Isaiah 35:4-7 What It’s About: I never quite know what to do with the various options that the lectionary gives us. That’s true for preaching, and that’s true for writing this blog. Sometimes I choose one and ignore the other, and sometimes I try to take account of both. These two passages, from Proverbs and from Isaiah, couldn’t really be more different on the surface. One is from the wisdom tradition, and it gives advice for... Read more

Uncategorized

2015-08-23T08:02:48-07:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Love and Righteousness: The Lectionary for the Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Last updated on: August 23, 2015 at 8:02 am By Eric Smith

Song of Solomon 2:8-13 What It’s About: These verses are standard Song of Solomon: the lover and the beloved exchanging compliments and articulating longings. And it’s pretty compelling; while some of the imagery in this book can be hard to translate into the 21st century (hi there, flocks of goats descending Mt. Gilead), a lot of us have known the sensation of wanting your beloved to come away with you into the fields. What It’s Really About: Origen of Alexandria... Read more

Uncategorized

2015-08-17T14:04:57-07:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Powers and Principalities: The Lectionary for the Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Last updated on: August 17, 2015 at 2:04 pm By Eric Smith

1 Kings 8:22-30, 41-45 What It’s About: This is the prayer Solomon offered at the dedication of the temple in Jerusalem. It serves as a kind of a charter for the temple-king alliance, as it draws explicit and implicit connections between God’s dwelling place in the temple (or, at least the dwelling of God’s name there), and the righteousness and longevity of the Davidic line. The prayer has a kind of inward/outward structure (more on that in a moment), beginning... Read more

Uncategorized

2015-08-09T18:55:32-07:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Bread and Wisdom: The Lectionary for the Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost

Last updated on: August 9, 2015 at 6:55 pm By Eric Smith

1 Kings 2:10-12, 3:3-14 What It’s About: This passage is sort of the launch story for Solomon. It’s not the first time we meet Solomon, but it’s the place where we learn one of the defining things about him–that he was wise. Each of the early kings of the united monarchy seem to have multiple traditions about them intertwined; David, for instance, was both a shepherd and a musician. In the case of Solomon, the two big narratives are that he... Read more

Uncategorized

2015-07-29T15:29:03-07:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Wild Yeast and Open Fermentation: The Future of Progressive Christianity

Last updated on: July 29, 2015 at 3:29 pm By Eric Smith

Editors’ Note: This article is part of the Patheos Public Square on the Future of Progressive Christianity in America. Read other perspectives here. I’ve spent most of my adult life in Asheville, NC and Denver, CO, so I have had to become a beer snob. Even in Denver, where you can see those same mountains that are found on those Coors cans and bottles, you can’t walk into a bar and order a Coors Light without every hipster in earshot giving... Read more

Uncategorized

2015-07-26T11:41:37-07:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

The Sin of David: A Sermon on Power and (White) Privilege

Last updated on: July 26, 2015 at 11:41 am By Eric Smith

What follows is a sermon I preached this morning, using 2 Samuel 11:1-15 as the text. I hesitate to post it here, because sermons like this are so contextual and specific to the communities to which they are delivered, but I feel strongly about the words I say here, and I want to share them. This is a sermon about Sin. That’s Sin with a capital S and no plural at the end. But I want to start with... Read more

Uncategorized

2015-07-19T08:05:49-07:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

The Dangers of Power and the Power of Setting the Table: The Lectionary for the Ninth Sunday after Pentecost

Last updated on: July 19, 2015 at 8:05 am By Eric Smith

Hello from Columbus, Ohio, where my home denomination, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) are holding its General Assembly. We gather once every two years to express our unity, hash out differences of opinion, and see to the business of operating a mainline denomination. I’m having an especially good time this year since I’m spending most of my time at the booth for the Iliff School of Theology, the school where I’m employed, and I’m getting the chance to chat with... Read more

Uncategorized

2015-07-11T14:36:08-07:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Dispatches from the Wild Goose: The Lectionary for the Eighth Sunday after Pentecost

Last updated on: July 11, 2015 at 2:36 pm By Eric Smith

Greetings from sunny and muggy Hot Springs NC, where I am taking in one day of the Wild Goose Festival. This is my third year at the Wild Goose, and you can find my reflections on the festival in prior years here, here, here, here, and here. Rather than taking my customary approach to the texts, I thought I’d treat the lectionary readings as touchstones to talk about what I’m hearing and seeing here at the festival this year. The Wild Goose... Read more

Uncategorized

2015-07-04T13:59:06-07:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Dances and Grudges: The Lectionary for the Seventh Sunday after Pentecost

Last updated on: July 4, 2015 at 1:59 pm By Eric Smith

2 Samuel 6:1-5, 12b-19 and/or Amos 7:7-17 What It’s About: These are two very different texts. The first, from 2 Samuel, is an amazing look into the life of David and the world of ancient Israel. Here we see David dancing, frolicking almost, among the people and before the Lord. It’s a beautiful moment of seemingly unabashed joy. The Amos text, on the other hand, bears witness to clashing agendas, with Jereboam and his loyalists on one side and Amos... Read more

Uncategorized

2015-06-27T14:40:09-07:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Prophets in their Hometowns: The Lectionary for the Sixth Sunday after Pentecost

Last updated on: June 27, 2015 at 2:40 pm By Eric Smith

2 Samuel 5:1-5, 9-10 and/or Ezekiel 2:1-5 What It’s About: The 2 Samuel text is about David’s ascension to the throne and an overview of his reign; the Ezekiel text is an account of a prophetic call and charge. Both of these are ways of describing how God insinuates God’s presence into the midst of the people. Kingship was a major way that the divine was mediated to the people, and kings like David were presumed to have an especially close... Read more

Uncategorized

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What Christian group is known for using incense during worship?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Pentecostals Jehovah’s Witnesses Baptists Orthodox Christians

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Uncategorized

Select a Month November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015

TRENDING AT PATHEOS Progressive Christian