Author Archives: NextSunday Reflections

Mark 10:35-40 Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you (v. 29). My high school summers were all about community theatre. Producing three shows in three months meant lots of work and a shortage of workers. My friend Marguerite and I spent long days working on sets and costumes, returning […]

Mark 10:32-34 My 32nd birthday present was a positive pregnancy test. I took it during a lunch break as my co-worker waited eagerly outside the door of the coffee shop restroom. I’d been waiting for this moment long enough to feel shocked when it finally happened. When I saw those two blue lines, I burst […]

Psalm 19:11-14  Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer (v. 14). Many preachers pray this Scripture aloud before a sermon. In my preaching class, I heard this so often it almost sounded like a magic phrase, as if praying […]

Psalm 19:7-10 The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul;the decrees of the Lord are sure, making wise the simple. (v. 7) “Come look at this,” my husband said to me with tears in his eyes. He was holding the Bible that belonged to our friend Jimmy. Jimmy’s funeral was the next day, […]

Psalm 19:4b-6 I was trying to comfort my teenage niece over the phone as she worked through an anxious moment. The best I could offer her on that late-night call was a strategy I know from experience: the 5-4-3-2-1 exercise. As she listened to my quiet voice and found her breath, I guided her to […]

Psalm 19:1-4a Yet their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. (v. 4)  “I’m so happy that you decided to spend a Saturday morning in this sacred place,” world-renown cellist Yo-Yo Ma said to the crowd. He wasn’t playing in a cathedral or a concert hall. […]

Mark 10:28-31 But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first. (v. 31) “Who was the line leader today?” I asked my young son. Last year in kindergarten, whoever was the first at something became the major headline of the day. I was surprised to learn that in first grade […]

Mark 10:23-27 “Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast!” the Queen responds when Alice says she can’t believe in impossible things (Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking-Glass). Things in Wonderland don’t make sense to the girl. While I like to think I have as much imagination as any storybook character, I […]

Mark 10:17-22 Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? (v. 17) I can’t be sure, but I suspect the man talking to Jesus is a “three” on the Enneagram personality test. As a recent student of the Enneagram, a tool that helps us understand ourselves and others, I enjoy “reading” people to […]

Psalm 32:1-5 I had preached that morning on forgiveness. As I stepped down from the pulpit, a deacon handed me a note that contained only a phone number. “This person was watching on television,” he said, “and she called in. She wouldn’t leave her name, but she asked if you could call her.” I finished […]