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Galatians 4:4-7
Christmas 1B
Whenever a child is born, there is a change in status for various people. When a first child is born, someone becomes a mother for the first time or a father. The birth of a child can confer the new status of “grandparent” on someone or perhaps “uncle” or “aunt.” A new child can turn…
Luke 1:26-38
Advent 4B
Biblical scholars call passages like Luke 1 “type scenes.” A modern kind of “type scene” might be something like this: one evening while channel-surfing, you run across a movie already in progress. It’s obviously a Western with two cowboys standing about thirty yards apart in the middle of a dusty street. Each man is glaring…
Romans 16:25-27
Advent 4B
How does one say goodbye? Paul faced that in every letter he wrote but perhaps his most curious—and in its own way most moving—farewell comes at the end of Romans 16. Actually all of chapter 16 is an extended farewell. In fact, for this sermon commentary I am going to widen out the Lectionary text…
John 1:6-8, 19-28
Advent 3B
“Among you stands one you do not know.” Those were John the Baptist’s words as recorded in John 1:26. Of course, at that time it was literally true that a quiet carpenter’s son from the backwaters of the Roman Empire was rubbing shoulders with lots of people—including the crowds that jostled together at the banks…
1 Thessalonians 5:16-24
Advent 3B
After the heavy duty apocalyptic warnings and the stern commands of II Peter 3:8-15a, our reading for this third Sunday of Advent feels a bit lightweight, like a snow flurry of commands that don’t really fit the Advent season, except that our reading ends with Paul’s final reference in this letter to “the Parousia of…
Mark 1:1-8
Advent 2B
Imagine yourself a Kindergarten teacher who gathers a group of wide-eyed five-and six-year-olds onto the square of carpeting in the classroom that is reserved for “Story Time.” You smile into their innocent faces and begin your story. “Once upon a time a little girl named Goldilocks was fast asleep in a lovely little bed—a bed…
2 Peter 3:8-15a
Advent 2B
“Like re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.” So some Christians have characterized ecological stewardship efforts within the church. And it is not difficult to discern why parts of this passage in 2 Peter 3 have been used to prop up the idea that Christians who work to save the environment are battling a lost…
Mark 13:24-37
Advent 1B
Long about the time most people are switching all of their Christmas lights on to celebrate the holiday, the Gospel reading for the first Sunday in Advent brings us straight to a text that points forward to a great and coming day when all the lights will go . . . out. Try turning this…
1 Corinthians 1:3-9
Advent 1B
The theologian Robert Jenson passed away recently. “Jens” as he was known had the ability to see through to the core of many theological and historical matters. He once made a curious point in the course of a seminar I attended one week. Jens said that in history, the Christian Church has, of course, found…
Matthew 25:31-46
Proper 29A
Why don’t we pay more attention to life as we live it? Why do we miss so much? In Matthew 25 both groups, sheep and goats alike, say they didn’t realize that the poor of the world represented Jesus. Both missed that connection. Ever noticed that before? The righteous are not commended for spying Jesus…
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