Content related to Matthew

Home » New Testament » Matthew » Page 15

Matthew 1:18-25

Advent 4A

Suppose that one day you were reading a story in which an elderly woman is talking to her pregnant granddaughter. “Now listen, my dear,” the old woman says, “I would ask that you name this child after your grandfather and so give him the name Nelson.” Suppose the young woman agrees. “OK, Grandma, his name…

Read More

Matthew 11:2-11

Advent 3A

Last year it was the cups at Starbucks.   But every year somebody finds something by which to allege that a coordinated war is being waged on Christmas.  Last year since Starbucks stopped putting Merry Christmas on its red holiday paper coffee cups, some customers did a coy end-run on it all by giving their names…

Read More

Matthew 3:1-12

Advent 2A

Across the United States in recent weeks, there have been tidal waves of accusation and blame, counter-accusations and blame, judgments and more judgments from the left and from the right and from all points in between.   Political parties are said to have been judged by the voters.   Individual politicians are said to have been repudiated…

Read More

Matthew 24:36-44

Advent 1A

In Anne Tyler’s novel, The Amateur Marriage, we witness a sad series of events. The book’s main characters are Michael and Pauline, a pair of World War II-era sweethearts who get married and eventually have three children. But then one day their oldest child, Lindy, just disappears. She runs away from home and promptly falls…

Read More

Matthew 1:1-17

“This is the genealogy of Jesus…” So begins the gospel of Matthew. Frankly, it sounds a bit boring. After all, the genealogies are one of those the parts of the Bible that we skip over (unless someone is watching us and we feel guilty, because “all scripture” is supposed to be profitable, 2 Tim. 3:16)….

Read More

Matthew 6:5-15

Comments, Observations, and Questions to Consider: Helmut Thielicke preached to the church in Stuttgart in the declining days of Germany’s “reign of terror.” Screaming sirens, underground bomb shelters and fear surrounded his congregation. When Rev. Thielicke started a sermon series on this very text, his congregation was still worshipping in the Church of the Hospitallers….

Read More

Matthew 15:29-39

Comments, Observations, and Questions to Consider Out of the two “Feeding the Multitude” miracles, this one of “the 4,000” gets considerably less airtime than its larger twin. It’s not just overshadowed by the numbers (5,000 men, 12 baskets, more verses) but also in seeming importance. Besides the Resurrection itself, the 5,000 feeding is the only…

Read More

Matthew 15:1-20

Angles, insights, and illustrations as entry points into the text and sermon Inside and Out Preachers as well as parishioners know intuitively that there is much at stake in a text like Matthew 15.  What is at stake here, and how high the stakes are becomes obvious as we probe more deeply.  In the text,…

Read More

Matthew 11:7-19

Have you ever said that about yourself that you are greater than King David?  Or have you ever said that you are greater than Solomon?  Jesus says that the least in the kingdom are greater than John the Baptist and John the Baptist is greater than all who came before him.  Which means you are…

Read More

Matthew 9:27-34

Comments and Observations I hate it when someone acts one way when we’re with one group of people and then is a completely different person in a different context. Perhaps that explains some of my discomfort with this passage from Matthew 9. These back-to-back healings are, in many ways, nondescript. We are given few details,…

Read More