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Hosea 11:1-11
Proper 13C
When trying to teach seminary students some techniques for effective Bible reading, Hosea 11 is a chapter I often assign. I ask students to ponder the text and to then make a recording for me of what they would deem to be an effective interpretive reading. I am often floored by how bloodless some such…
Hosea 1:2-10
Proper 12C
We teach a certain rule-of-thumb to our seminary students. We talk about it as colleagues in ministry. And deep down we intuitively know this truth anyway. We preachers know that it’s at best dicey to use our spouse and children as sermon illustrations, exemplars of behavior good or bad, or just generally as the starting…
Hosea 11:1-11
Proper 13C
Marcion was the first to do it, but surely not the last. In the middle of the second century after Christ, Marcion taught that the God of the Old Testament was different than the Father of Jesus Christ. The God of the Old Testament was angry, violent, judgmental, and not worth following if you were…
Hosea 1:2-10
Proper 12C
How on earth can you preach this strange and sordid text? Well, ask yourself this question. How do you get someone to stop doing something dangerous when they simply won’t listen to you? The other day my youngest grandson, a daring dynamo of perpetual motion, had entered a goofy phase and was riding one of…
Hosea 11:1-11
Proper 13C
Few issues seem to more deeply divide North American Christians than the final fate of God’s Jewish people. Will God save them en masse so that all Jews get to experience the peace of God’s new creation? Will the Holy Spirit convert some Jews to the Christian faith before Christ returns? Will God finally grant…
Hosea 1:2-10
Proper 12C
Few parents seem to pick their children’s first names on the basis of their meaning anymore. It appears many pick names on the basis of their popularity or family history. Israelites, however, chose their children’s names because of their meanings. So, for example, Hannah names her son Samuel because she “asked the Lord for him.”…
Scandal in the Parsonage
Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Jacksonville, FL on October 9, 2005. Used with permission of First Presbyterian and the author.
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