nshwilliams.bsky.social
@nshwilliams.bsky.social
Meanwhile, God promises to dwell where God always has: among the people.
October 14, 2025 at 2:10 PM
Solomon’s famous court case involving the two sex workers suggests connections with John 4:1-30 and 8:3-11. This year my attention is on the woman whose son died suddenly: Where is the compassion for her? What does justice (divine or royal) have to do with grief?
October 6, 2025 at 4:36 PM
Solomon shows that he will be good at the “wise judgment” part, but there’s foreshadowing of the “entangled with foreign gods” and “opulence extracted from the people” aspects that will undermine the whole kingdom. Notes on 1 Kings 3:4-9 (10-15) 16-28:
ecologian.wordpress.com/2025/10/05/a...
A Funny thing: 1 Kings 3
A Funny thing happened on the way to the pulpit with 1 Kings 3:4-9, (10-15), 16-28, the Epic Lectionary text for October 12. This text begins a new narrative arc and a shift in theological focus. W…
ecologian.wordpress.com
October 6, 2025 at 4:36 PM
Alternatively, in which God acts out the divine desire for loyalty not sacrifice and exercises the power of the resurrection so you’ll know what it looks like later.
September 29, 2025 at 8:51 PM
Their laughter discloses that faithfulness and incredulity go hand in hand.
September 16, 2025 at 2:09 PM
We include Abraham’s laughter (17:17) specifically to push back on the idea that Sarah’s laughter (18:12) is unfaithful somehow. Modernity imagines faith as an intellectual assent to unsupported propositions. Sarah and Abraham’s faith is enacted, not conceptualized.
September 16, 2025 at 2:09 PM
These elderly people laugh for the same reason that babies laugh: because something impossible is taking place. God interrupts an established reality with something absurd.
September 16, 2025 at 2:09 PM
In the optional second part of the reading, Sarai endures an impossible situation; where do people create opportunities for faithfulness when the world denies their agency?
September 9, 2025 at 6:31 PM
Any interrelated group of people can function as a “body.” What makes the #church the #BodyOfChrist is the power of the #HolySpirit to disrupt the world’s power structures.
#PeopleOfMission #NarrativeLectionary
ecologian.wordpress.com/2025/08/15/a...
A Funny thing: Acts 19
A Funny thing happened on the way to the pulpit with Acts 19:1-10, 23-41, my text for August 31. (I’m not preaching the 24th, but my congregation will hear a sermon on Acts 17:16-34 anyway.) …
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August 20, 2025 at 1:58 PM
You need an eye for irony to interpret the #Bible. The defenders of the status quo create an uproar by falsely accusing others of being disruptive while missing the way they’re actually turning the world upside down.

#PeopleOfMission #NarrativeLectionary
ecologian.wordpress.com/2025/08/07/a...
A Funny thing: Acts 17:1-9
A Funny thing happened on the way to the pulpit with Acts 17:1-9, my text for August 17. Along with the beginning of 1 Thessalonians, this was the NL for Easter 4 in 2024. If I were preaching a ful…
ecologian.wordpress.com
August 12, 2025 at 11:41 AM
#Freedom in the #Bible is not about turning prisoners into runaways so much as turning jailers into hosts. (I do wish the Bible were more explicit about what it means for enslaved girls after their exorcisms.)

#PeopleOfMission #NarrativeLectionary
ecologian.wordpress.com/2025/08/04/a...
A Funny thing: Acts 16
A Funny thing happened on the way to the pulpit with Acts 16:(11-15) 16-34, the text for August 10 in my People of Mission series. This passage appeared in the NL on Easter 4 of 2022. In the RCL 9-…
ecologian.wordpress.com
August 8, 2025 at 2:40 PM