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Acts 4:32-35

Easter 2B

Very early in my preaching ministry, I was producing one theological/exegetical masterpiece after another (in my own mind).  My wife wasn’t so convinced.  She put up with it for about a month, when she nailed me with this simple question.  “So what?  What difference does all that make?” In the Old Testament (?) readings for…

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1 John 1:1-2:2

Easter 2B

This Sunday’s Epistolary Lesson’s proclaimers might lead into their presentation of it with a story of how they needed an intercessor. A number of years ago I traveled to sit with members of our church during their family member’s major surgery. Using an inaccurate map, I became lost in a maze of one-way streets. After…

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Mark 16:1-8

Easter Day B

[Note: John 20 gets assigned by the Lectionary for every Easter Sunday in the three-year cycle. Since I have posted sermon ideas on that text often over the years, this year I will go with the alternative text from Mark 16.  But if you want to view a John 20 sermon commentary from last year,…

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1 Corinthians 15:1-11

Easter Day B

In 1 Corinthians 15 Paul tries to clear up some theological misunderstandings about the resurrection. Yet he insists that the Corinthians’ confusion about it isn’t just one among many problems that he’s already addressed. Lack of clarity about the resurrection isn’t like confusion about, for example, sexuality, food offered to idols and lawsuits that plague…

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Mark 11:1-11

Lent 6B

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 then a nearly…

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Philippians 2:5-11

Lent 6B

The retired American professional basketball star Charles Barkley once famously said in a television commercial, “I’m not a role model … Just because I dunk a basketball doesn’t mean I should raise your kids.” His statement displayed the kind of wisdom that other public figures sometimes lack. The Epistolary Lesson the RCL appoints for this…

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John 12:20-33

Lent 5B

“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 pulpits, often on a small brass plate visible to the preacher alone. …

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Hebrews 5:5-10

Lent 5B

This week’s Epistolary Lesson assumes that for a relationship to exist between God and God’s people, as well as among groups and between individuals, things must be repaired and restored. However, Hebrews 5 insists that the only way that can happen is if God does it. We’re sometimes angered to hear our various leaders reveal…

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John 3:14-21

Lent 4B

This commentary originally appeared as my regular blog post on The Twelve on March 2, 2021.  If you wish to see a slightly different take on this passage, you can click here to view my sermon commentary from 2018. Johnson&Johnson&Jesus   If you have gone to most any news or newspaper website in the last…

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Ephesians 2:1-10

Lent 4B

Grace is what my colleague Scott Hoezee calls “the dearest piece of good news the church has for the world.” It’s also, however, what he calls, “fiercely difficult to grasp.” After all, grace has always been a source of both deep comfort and frustration, of both joy and even controversy for Christians. Jonah, for instance,…

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