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Luke 4:1-13

Lent 1C

Scott-Hoezee
Scott Hoezee

“He ate nothing during those days and at the end of them, he was hungry.” Luke 4:2 I’ll say. This curious line in verse 2 is easy to glide past en route to the real drama to come once the devil shows up to woo Jesus to his side. At best we see this as…

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Romans 10:8b-13

Lent 1C

Scott-Hoezee
Scott Hoezee

Romans 9-11 can make for tough reading. Paul is clearly tortured here where the question of the future of the Jewish people is concerned. In these three chapters it is almost as though Paul is thinking out loud, trying to write his way to a solution to a vexing theological question: now that God’s covenant…

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Luke 9:28-36

Last Epiphany C

Scott-Hoezee
Scott Hoezee

Not for nothing are they called “Mountaintop Experiences”! In the Bible, when a story takes us up to a mountaintop, it’s a fair bet that something dramatic is going to happen—indeed, it’s a fair bet that something deeply revelatory is going to happen. Luke 9 is no exception. But the drama up there on that…

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2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2

Last Epiphany C

Scott-Hoezee
Scott Hoezee

Setting aside Donald Trump’s recent exigetically disastrous and self-serving use of a verse in this week’s Epistle lection, most of us who preach would admit that this is not an easy text to get right. Paul’s second letter to Corinth contains wonderful pockets of now well-known words and images. But weaving in and around those…

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Matthew 1:1-17

RB
Randy Blacketer

“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)….

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Acts 27:13-44

RB
Randy Blacketer

“Call me Ishmael.” So begins the epic sea adventure Moby Dick, in which the conflict between humanity and the Leviathan symbolizes so many other conflicts. It’s a story that captivates us, as we have always been captivated by stories of voyages and adventures at sea. The adventures and exploits of Odysseus, doing battle with mythical…

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2 Corinthians 11

RB
Randy Blacketer

Pastor Heath Mooneyham thinks that many churches are too wimpy, and that’s why so few men come to church. So his congregation, the aptly-named Ignite Church in Joplin, Missouri, started giving away military-style rifles to attract men to their testosterone-fueled services. Mooneyham enticed seekers with the promise that they could “double tap a zombie in…

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1 Timothy 4

RB
Randy Blacketer

Apostasy. It’s not a word that we hear too often in Christian circles, except in perhaps more argumentative circles. It’s not a word that one should use too quickly or easily. But it’s the term that the apostle uses here: Some will apostatize (ἀποστήσονται) in later days, or the last days. To apostatize is to…

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2 John

RB
Randy Blacketer

“All you need is love…” John Lennon’s iconic refrain still resonates in our culture decades after it was a hit for The Beatles, and so does the sentiment. From the first epistle of John you might get the impression that John agrees, since love is the overriding theme of that letter, mentioned well over 40…

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Matthew 6:5-15

LC
Lora Copley

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….

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