Home » New Testament »
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
Proper 27A
It started out as words of comfort. Paul’s intention was to soothe anxieties, tamp down sorrows, answer some hard questions that the Thessalonians were asking. That’s how it started. Over time, though, these words in 1 Thessalonians 4—coupled with some further talk on similar themes in the next chapter—have become a source of unending speculation,…
Matthew 23:1-12
Proper 26A
Matthew 23 indicates that pastors (i.e., most of us reading this commentary) need to be wary of the titles people afford us. Although neither “Reverend” nor “Pastor” is specifically mentioned in Matthew 23, only a very wily preacher would ever suggest this indicates that those titles are exempt from Jesus’ comments. So what are we…
1 Thessalonians 2:9-13
Proper 26A
We preachers need to be careful. When someone catches us at the church door to disagree with our sermon some Sunday, it is tempting to say “Hey, your quarrel is not with me but with God. I was just preaching God’s Word so . . .” Of course, sometimes that really may be the case. …
Matthew 22:34-46
Proper 25A
Back to the beginning. That might be a good way to understand this passage in Matthew 22. Because in a couple of ways, these verses hark back to how Matthew began Jesus’ story in this Gospel. First there is the genealogy in Matthew 1. In that “family tree” of Jesus Matthew inserts something into the…
1 Thessalonians 2:1-8
Proper 25A
Was there ever a time in the history of the church when some did not accuse Christians and pastors of bad motives? Was there always the sneaking suspicion on the part of some that preachers are just slick hucksters, charlatans who use smooth talking and seductive rhetoric as a way to line their own pockets? …
Matthew 22:15-22
Proper 24A
Sometimes these days Christians seem a little, well, thin-skinned. Some people can all-but fly into a rage and get into a serious spiritual lather when confronted with some obvious piece of anti-religious behavior or when they hear that a character on a TV show said something religiously offensive. On Facebook you can regularly see posts…
1 Thessalonians 1:1-10
Proper 24A
These words are very old. Ancient. Scholars differ on most everything, of course, but it is possible that 1 Thessalonians was the first of Paul’s epistles. And since we are quite certain that the writing of the epistles pre-dates the writing down of the Gospels by a good bit of time, it is fully possible…
Matthew 22:1-14
Proper 23A
In a seminar on Matthew’s gospel, Tom Long pointed out that in Matthew, it’s never a good thing to be addressed as “friend.” Every time someone is called a friend in Matthew, what follows is not pleasant! Jesus himself was referred to as a “friend” by the religious authorities in Matthew 11 but it was…
Philippians 4:1-9
Proper 23A
I imagine they blushed a fairly deep shade of magenta. I imagine them sitting there as part of the Sunday worship service, surrounded by the rest of the congregation. On this particular Lord’s day, in addition to the usual components of the liturgy, they had the added special blessing of hearing a letter from their…
Matthew 21:33-46
Proper 22A
******BOOM******* That’s probably not a word (or a sound effect) you associate with the parables of Jesus. But it’s more apt than you might think. Eugene Peterson famously said that parables are narrative time bombs. These are stealthy stories that steal into people’s hearts, confusing them initially, throwing them off balance for a while….
Content related to New Testament