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1 Corinthians 15:1-10
Easter 1B
Comments and Observations I’ve always thought that Easter is one of the toughest preaching dates on the calendar. That’s counter-intuitive, I know, since the resurrection of Christ is arguably the most exciting event in the drama of salvation. The problem is that everyone already knows the story backwards and forwards. Even little children know that…
Mark 11:1-11
Lent 6B
Comments and Observations It’s something I’ve just never understood. Ever since I was a little kid I have wondered why the various Gospel texts on Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem are so careful to include both Jesus’ detailed instructions on where to find a colt (and what to do with it once they located it) and…
Philippians 2:5-11
Lent 6B
Comments, Observations, and Questions For this sermon commentary, I am going to zero in on the question asked by the Palm Sunday crowd in Matthew 21:10. As Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, surrounded by the acclamation of the crowd, “the whole city was stirred and asked, ‘Who is this?’” The crowds around Jesus…
John 12:20-33
Lent 5B
Comments and Observations “Sir, we would see Jesus.” With all due apologies to the many pastors out there who need to be addressed as “Ma’am” and not “Sir,” those of us who preach in various churches have seen those words—lifted up out of John 12:21—emblazoned on many pulpits, often on a small brass plate visible…
Hebrews 5:1-10
Lent 5B
Comments, Observations, and Questions I doubt that most preachers will chose this lectionary reading for their sermon on this fifth Sunday of Lent. Hebrews is just plain tough to preach. For one thing it is so complex, dealing as it does with long forgotten aspects of the Jewish faith. Sermons on Hebrews require detailed explanations…
John 3:14-21
Lent 4B
Comments and Observations John 3:16 may be the most famous Bible verse in the world but that doesn’t mean it’s easy to understand. As Frederick Dale Bruner points out in his commentary on The Gospel of John, this entire chapter is fraught with mystery. The story takes place at night, the meeting seems to be…
Ephesians 2:1-10
Lent 4B
Comments and Observations The first three verses of this text reminded me of my two favorite criticisms of Calvinism, which has historically taken these verses as a proof text for its doctrine of total depravity. A car critic described the famously boxy Volvo as something that might have been designed by “a Calvinist with a…
John 2:13-22
Lent 3B
Comments, Observations, and Questions We are impressed very often by all the wrong things. In John 2 everyone was impressed with the physical Temple. It had been undergoing construction for over four decades already and was not even finished. It reminds me of the Ken Follett novel The Pillars of the Earth that narrates the…
1 Corinthians 1:18-25
Lent 3B
Comments, Observations, and Questions This is a great text for this third Sunday of Lent because it focuses our attention not on Lenten disciplines (important and helpful though they may be), but on the cross of Christ. That’s what Lent is all about. Indeed, the cross of Christ is what Christianity is all about. That’s…
Mark 8:31-38
Lent 2B
Comments and Observations: Life has its ups and downs but rarely are they packed so closely together as in Mark 8. Only a few verses earlier Peter had answered one of history’s most powerful questions and he had answered it correctly. Mark’s spare style means that we don’t hear what the other gospels tell us…
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