Table of Contents
ABRAHAM His Trust in God’s Promise ADVENT SEASON As God’s Offer of Grace ALTAR As Furniture of Worship Made Holy by God ASCENSION As Fulfillment of the Incarnation Jesus Christ Is Now Lord in Heaven as on Earth AUTHORITY Of Jesus as Given, Not Proven BAPTISM As God’s Promise to Us of His Gospel BIBLE As Comfort Amidst Conflict As Inward Confrontation Genesis—The Book of Beginnings Holy Spirit as Its Only True Interpreter Speaks of God in His Sovereignty Upfront about Human Wrongdoing BURDEN Of Daily Life Endured as Rest under the Yoke of Christ Of Our Humanity Overcome by Christ CHRISTIAN EXISTENCE As Conflict of Flesh and Spirit As a Fruitful Branch of the True Vine As Growth in the Grace of Christ As Living with Christ As a Pilgrimage, Not a Tourist Site As the Call to Freedom As True in a Hidden Belonging Exercised in Commitment Keeping Alert to Being IN Christ Learned in the Cradle of Forgiveness Letting God-in-Christ Fulfill His Purpose for You Not Defined by Human Standards CHRISTIANITY As Limited to the Golden Rule—St. Luke 6:31 As Merely Religious Summons Customary Versions of CHRIST JESUS As Being Surprised by Him As Guest in Our Home As Light that Overcomes Darkness As Our Eternal Contemporary As Reality of God’s Word Baptized by John the Baptist Daily Rebirth in Demonstrates the Wideness of God’s Love Friendship of His Consummate Word from the Cross His Entry into the Dominion of Death His Love the Basis of Family Care In Being Beyond Our Knowing Recognized by the Demon-Possessed Sovereignty of CHRISTMAS As Both Poetry and Prose As Experienced by the Bethlehem Shepherds As God’s Event Announced Only by Heaven’s Angels As God’s Gift that Requires a Wilderness Experience As God’s Own Story As Good News to Someone for Everyone Celebrated in a Hymn of Invitation CHURCH As Community of God’s Own People As the School for Issues of Gospel Faith Its Worldly Disorder Like Being with Abraham and Family COMFORT Worldly, in Being Self-Consolation As That Which Abounds in the Father of Mercies CONFIRMATION RITE As God’s Claim on You in Christ Jesus CONSCIENCE As Fear and Shame before God CONVERSION CREATION Of Light, as God’s First Work CROSS of CHRIST As God’s Righteous Judgment DECISION For God, as God’s Calling of Us DISCIPLESHIP As Being a Brother to All Persons As Fellowship with Christ’s Death As Following along with Christ and Doing as He Does As a Humanly Impossible Requirement As Laying Life’s Burdens down at the Cross of Christ As Oneness with God-in-Christ As Remaining Steadfast in Christ As Summons to Implicit Obedience As the Impossible Renunciation As the Way of the Cross Being Responsible to the Presence of Christ EASTER As Celebrated in Confusion As God’s Own Purpose As Living and Dying in Christ ELISHA His Vision of Spiritual Realities FAITH As a Continuing Struggle As Focused on God’s Commanding Purpose As Promise in God’s Power As Tested by Discouragement and Despair As Tested by Obedience to God As Thoughtful, Not Mindless Dependent on Loyalty of Devoted Love Is Staying in the Company of Jesus Not a Way of Proving God FORGIVENESS As the Fire of Divine Cleansing GLORY Divine, as Revealed by the Word GOD And Religious Patriotism As Confronted by His Reality As David’s Trust As Potter of a New Humanity As the Only Solution to One’s Loneliness Dimensions of His Love Glory as All His Own His Everlasting Word His Faithfulness His Friendship as a Reckoning Relationship His Hand His Love as David’s Only Testimony His Silence a Price in Learning to Believe Secure under His Wings To Whom We Are Bound to Give Account GOD, POWER OF As Denied by Pharaoh Exercised in Fulfillment of His Purpose GOD, PRESENCE OF As a Problematical Concern In the Birth of Jesus Not to Be Mistaken as a “Good-Luck” Charm To Be Sought Whether Asleep or Awake GOD, RIGHTEOUSNESS OF Revealed in Death as God’s Wrath Revealed in God’s Calling of the Prophet: Isaiah 6:1-8 GOD, SOVEREIGNTY OF As Revealed in the Cross of Christ GOD, WORD OF As Absolutely Trustworthy As Challenge of the NEW in Christ As a Joyful Imperative As a Misunderstood Voice As Power and Truth As Spiritual Food Its Fullness in Christ GOSPEL As Wholly Contained in Psalm 23 As God’s Holy Love, Subverted by Cultural Christianity GRACE As Dwelling in Community of God’s Love Its Three-Fold Dimension of Christian Existence GUIDANCE As Being Alive to God GUILT As a Prevalent Human Condition HEART As Channel of Life’s Issues As Determination of Character HOLY COMMUNION Its Reality Is in Being Received Jesus Giving Himself in an Intimate Event HOLY SPIRIT As Power in the Name of Jesus Christ Replaced by Evil When Withdrawn Represents the Reality of Christ Jesus HOPE True as Being Grounded in God IGNORANCE Concerning Christ INSECURITY As a Clue to the Gospel’s Relevance JACOB As Confronted by God’s Purpose in a Vision JESUS As Awesome Confrontation As Not Just Another Preacher As Not Primarily a Healer As Our Kingly God As the Crucified Christ As the Distinctive New Among the Old As the Invisible “Light of the World” Comes to Us as Christ the Lord Crucified with Two Criminals His Freedom in Mission His Ministry Ordained through John’s Baptism His Resurrection a FACT, Not a PRINCIPLE His Resurrection Not Just Another Miracle His Suffering as Eternal Sorrow His Teaching as the Gospel Enigma Mission and Message Misunderstood More than a Teacher of Good Unacceptable as Prophetic Fulfillment JOB, BOOK OF JOY As Distinct from Pleasure and Happiness Encompassed for Us in Christ JUDGMENT By and of Man in the Cross of Jesus KINGDOM OF GOD As Present in Christ Crucified As Promise of God’s Victorious Dominion Bears Fruit by Those Only with Ears to Hear Discovered and Gained as a Costly Treasure Entrance Price Entrance Requirement LIFE As Barren without God As Eternal in Its Mission As in Christ before Death and Resurrection As Mystery of Darkness and Light in God As Profane When Without God As a Spiritual Struggle As the Light of Eternity in Christ As Transformed by Christ Facing Its Reality Its Fulfillment in God Poses the Ultimate Question to God-Fearing People LOVE As GOD’S Purpose for Us As Sacrificial Giving For Christ as Being Emptied for Others In Christ the Lord as Prerequisite to Ministry When Fear is Overcome by God’s Love in Christ MARY, MOTHER OF JESUS MINISTRY Of God’s Word as Commitment to Pastoral Care MIRACLES Performed by Jesus as “Signs” NICODEMUS In Failing to Take Up His Cross OBEDIENCE As Being Bound to God, Not to the Law As Prescribed by the Mother of Jesus As the DOING of God’s Will As the Ultimate Decision Inadequate Simply as Sacrifice OLD TESTAMENT Reveals God’s Activity in Human Affairs PALM SUNDAY As a Spontaneous but Misunderstood Event The Challenge of Jesus’ Kingship PAUL, THE APOSTLE As Dying with Christ and Alive to God His Ministry to Be Judged Only by God PEACE As Faith Abiding in Christ As Revealed and Given to Us in Christ Jesus [John 14:28] PEOPLE As Crowd Followers of Jesus PETER, the DISCIPLE His Confession—As Imagined His Discipleship Transformed His Independence PETER, the APOSTLE Empowered by Christ in His Healing Ministry PHARISEES As Justified in Their Opposition to Jesus PRAYER As Being Alone with God As Deliverance from SELF As God’s Own Invitation As God’s Promises Fulfilled in Christ As True in the Context of God’s Glory As Wanting What God Determines Necessary as Taught by Jesus When It Requires Our Own Responsibility PREACHING Categories Genuine as God’s Action through His Spirit In the Apostolic Tradition Requires Faithfulness to the Word of God PRIDE As Refusing to Let Jesus Be Our Savior PROPHETIC HERITAGE, OUR As Reverential Fear of God PROVIDENCE As God’s Care for His Own Necessitates Human Response PSALMS As Expressive Guides in Our Daily Prayers Manifest Confidence in Faithfulness of God RECONCILIATION [See 2 Corinthians 5:19] As the Priority of the Father’s Love for the Son RELIGION Its True Priority and Promise True as Continuing Prayer RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE As Godly Fear As God’s Own Enterprise REPENTANCE As Readiness for God’s Grace Required in God’s Promise of Pardon RESURRECTION As General and Gospel Truth RIGHTEOUSNESS As Delight in God SALVATION As Realized in Exertion SANCTIFICATION Being Identified as Sinner-Saints Requires Self-Examination SELF-EXAMINATION As Authentic When in Christ As Being Beyond Introspection SELF-UNDERSTANDING As Process in Being Bound to Christ SIN As Claiming Life for Ourselves As Illustrated by the “Prodigal Son” As Judged in the Mirror of God’s Word Its Reality as Faced by St. Paul Revealed in the Shame of Disobedience SORROW Worldly versus Godly SPIRITUALITY As Confronted by Eternity As of Man or of God As the Secret of God’s Grace STEWARDSHIP As being Accountable Before the Judgment Seat of Christ SUFFERING As Manifest in Jesus Crucified TEMPTATION As a Serious Matter in Christian Existence As Portrayed in the Story of Job THANKSGIVING As Abiding Only in God As Gratitude in Christ As Honoring God in His Holiness As Living—Not Simply Giving—Thanks TIME As Enclosed by Eternity Of Crisis and of the End TRUTH As Being Cruciform As Fountain of Freedom As the Reality of God Manifested Only in Christ WAITING As Being in Readiness for God As Sponsored by God For God as Essential Obedience Is a Matter of Being Patient WISDOM As a Misunderstood Value As Awareness in the Heart of Knowing God Its Source as Humanly Elusive Its True Source WORK As Man’s Redemption in Christ As Prescribed by God WORLD In Its Negative and Positive Determinations WORLDLINESS As a Matter of Possessions WORSHIP As Being Confronted by the Mystery and Majesty of God As True in the One God Who Carries In Church as Sanctuary of Place and Time YOKE As Our Savior’s Discipline As Freedom in Surrender to Christ
