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John 8:48-59
There’s a very well-known story about a man trapped in the water (variations include him on a roof during a flood, lost on a large lake without his oars, or lost at sea). The man, being a good Christian, prays and believes that God will rescue him. A boat happens upon him and offers to…
Romans 3
No one will ever be able to accuse Paul of lacking passion. It oozes out of each of his letters in the New Testament. Sometimes though, when you’re passionate, your arguments don’t always make logical sense or flow smoothly from point to point. The opening of Romans is a good example of this. In Romans…
Galatians 3:1-14
In the letter to the Galatian church, Paul pleads for the believers there to cling to the faith that unites them and reject what others have argued as being the most important component to knowing who one is: keeping the law, especially the parts of the law that easily identified the community of God (i.e….
Titus 1
Paul tells Titus that his job is to continue the work they began while Paul was with him in Crete: organizing the believers with elders/overseers to guide their growth and protect their development. Reading through the qualifications, one thing becomes abundantly clear: living the faith with integrity is vital for everyone’s well-being. But why do…
2 Peter 2
Comments and Observations: There seems to be to basic questions underlying 2 Peter 2: (1) Will there be judgment? and (2) Who are you following? Building upon where true prophecy comes from in chapter 1, Peter wants to make sure that everyone listening recognizes that not all who claim to teach are from God. Just…
1 John 2
I find the letter/sermon in 1 John to be exceptionally pastoral and truthful. Scholars have helped us piece together the conflict that prompted all three letters with John in the name: it’s clear that the community of believers were being bombarded with challenges to core beliefs about Jesus and the nature of things by people…
Jude
Though it seems like the bulk of Jude’s letter deals with negative examples, he surrounds the negative with some very strong positives. The key is to slow down and pay attention to why Jude says what he says the way he says it. The main thing Jude wants to say to the community is found…
Revelation 20:1-6
Much has been written about the infamous thousand-year reign and not much of it agrees. Pick up three different commentaries and it is quite likely that you’ll get three different views about what is actually being described in John’s apocalyptic letter. Therefore, I believe that it’s only fair to identify myself within a particular tradition…
Revelation 21:1-27
A City (in) Context I live in “Beautiful British Columbia” (it’s on the license plates)—Vancouver Island, to be specific. The “city” is a boat or plane trip away across the Georgia Strait; people here want the open water, the tall trees and the sturdy mountains. So the first time our church community read Revelation 21…
Luke 4:14-21
Epiphany 3C
Suspense! If you stop at verse 21 as the Lectionary would have you to do and hold off on what happens in verses 22 and following next week, then a sermon on this text ends in some suspense as we wait to see how the people will react to what Jesus has just said and…
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