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Luke 12:49-56
Proper 15C
In the television show “The West Wing,” White House deputy chief of staff Josh Lyman is shot during an assassination attempt on the President. He nearly dies and it takes months for him to get back to work. But one day sometime later, Josh loses it in the Oval Office, raising his voice to the…
Hebrews 11:29-12:2
Proper 15C
It sometimes seems like human nature to long for heroes. Today, however, it’s difficult to find heroes to whom we can steadily look up. The bright lights of things like 24-hour cable networks, YouTube and social media expose even the most famous people’s moral spots and wrinkles. So it may seem nice to have a…
Luke 12:32-40
Proper 14C
Homiletics Professor Paul Scott Wilson refers to it as “The Tiny Dog.” Specifically he uses as a mnemonic device the phrase “The Tiny Dog Is Now Mine.” TTDINM is meant to help insure sermon unity by asking students/preachers to have One Text, One Theme, One Doctrine, One Image, One Need, and One Mission. The Tiny…
Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16
Proper 14C
The word “faith” conjures up a variety of images. Twenty-first century Western culture often seems to think of faith as belief that has no objective basis. One of the Merriam Webster Dictionary’s definitions of faith is “firm belief in something for which there is no proof.” From that perspective, one might have faith that, for…
Luke 12:13-21
Proper 13C
Sometimes it is surprising what people will ask a pastor. Most pastors field their fair share of biblical and theological questions. Often people will call with a follow-up query to a topic that cropped up in a sermon. Those are the kinds of pastoral inquiries one would expect. Once in a while, though, pastors get…
Colossians 3:1-11
Proper 13C
On that glorious first Easter morning an angel told the two Mary’s that God had raised Christ from the dead. Two thousand years later God’s adopted sons and daughters hear an aging apostle tells us that God also somehow raised us with Christ. But if it’s sometimes a little hard to believe that God raised…
Luke 11:1-13
Proper 12C
The Lord’s Prayer is hands down one of the most famous prayers ever. So how ironic it is to notice that in Luke’s presentation of this prayer, the narrative details are very sparse. Today if we were documenting the first-ever presentation of something that went on to become very famous and momentous, we’d want to…
Colossians 2:6-15, (16-19)
Proper 12C
Few phrases seem harder to learn and say than, “Thank you.” After all, few responses mature more slowly than thanksgiving. In fact, gratitude hasn’t yet fully ripened in me, even after nearly more than sixty-one years’ worth of reasons for feeling it. I, after all, naturally assume that I deserve nearly everything I have. So…
Luke 10:38-42
Proper 11C
Few things are easier than taking a portion of Scripture, isolating it from its original context, and then using this now rarified, out-of-context pericope to serve as some universal statement. (Think counted-cross-stitch wall hangings or Precious Moments figurines!) This brief lection from Luke 10:38-42 is a classic example. How many times hasn’t this gospel snippet…
Colossians 1:15-28
Proper 11C
If the first four verses of this Sunday’s RCL’s Epistolary Lesson don’t make its preachers and teachers’ heads spin at least a bit, we’re probably not paying enough attention to them. In verse 15, after all, Paul insists, probably no more than 20 years after Jesus ascended into the heavenly realm, he’s “the image of…
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