Mystery Without Rhyme or Reason: Poetic Reflections on the Revised Common Lectionary

This collection of poetic reflections is a rich resource for a faithful imagination. Michael Coffey's poems explore the deep questions and joyful affirmations of Christian faith. Never settling for easy answers or straight-forward interpretations, Coffey's writing invites the reader into new spiritual territory where the strange and unexpected, the beautiful and painful, become an encounter with the holy. Anyone preparing to preach or teach on biblical texts will find here words that inspire, challenge, and create new inroads for faith. Anyone seeking meditative or devotional readings of Scripture will find a companion for thoughtful reflection and prayer. Covering most of the Sundays and primary festivals of the church's liturgical year, these writings will enrich all who plan, prepare, and participate in worship that spans the vast themes of Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Easter, Pentecost, and the ordinary Sundays.

Michael Coffey is an ordained minister in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, currently serving as pastor of First English Lutheran Church in Austin, TX. He has previously served parishes in Burnet, TX and San Antonio, TX. He is a contributing writer for Sundays and Seasons and Sundays and Seasons: Preaching; and Classical Considerations: Useful Wisdom from Greece and Rome (2006).

Walter Brueggemann is William Marcellus McPheeters Professor of Old Testament Emeritus at Columbia Theological Seminary, Decatur, Georgia. He is past President of the Society of Biblical Literature and the author of several books from Cascade Books, including: A Pathway of Interpretation, David and His Theologian, Divine Presence amid Violence, Praying the Psalms (2nd ed.), and The Role of Old Testament Theology in Old Testament Interpretation.(2011), Remember You Are Dust (2012), Embracing the Transformation (2013), and The Practice of Homefulness (2014).