Movies for Preaching
The Mission (1986)
Written by Robert Bolt, Cinematography by Chris Menges, Music by Ennio Morricone, Starring Jeremy Irons, Robert De Niro, and Ray McAnally. 125 mins. Rated PG. There’s more than one way of catching Jesus, meaning the deep-core of Him, a hard task in any setting, to be very sure. Words go only so far, especially when…
Reading for Preaching
Telling the Truth: the Gospel as Tragedy, Comedy, and Fairy Tale
Additional content related to Gospel
Acts 7:55-60
On the face of it, a six-verse Bible passage that centers on the brutal murder of an innocent man does not appear to be an edifying preaching text. Perhaps that seems all the more to be the case when we realize this passage is assigned in the Year A Lectionary for the Season of Eastertide…
Lent 4A: The Gift of Sight
Years ago in the weeks following the September 11 attacks, perhaps some of you noticed something that a number of people were detecting during that dark and difficult time: namely, there was a lot of axe-grinding going in many circles. People from both sides of the political spectrum, and from most all points in between,…
Lent 3A: Welling Up
Some years ago, writer Eugene Peterson found an analogy for modern spiritual quests in, of all things, a Winnie the Pooh story. In one of the many tales from the Hundred-Acre Woods, Christopher Robin and company decide to set out one day in search of the North Pole. At one point along the way, young…
2 Timothy 1:1-14
Paul’s call to his dear son Timothy to “guard” (14) the gospel is evocative. It’s, what’s more, the title of John Stott’s commentary, to which I owe a lot for this message’s ideas, on the apostle’s second letter to Timothy. So Paul’s call to “guard the gospel” might also serve as a kind of on-ramp…
Acts 11:1-18
Luke is hands-down one of the best writers ever used by the Holy Spirit to compose a portion of Scripture. His narratives in the first two chapters of his Gospel alone prove as much. Other examples of narrative wizardry abound in Luke and Acts. So it is a bit odd in Acts 11 to encounter…
Acts 5:27-32
Oh how I wish the Lectionary had extended this lection to include the words of Gamaliel that follow. Because there this key leader of the Sanhedrin says something that is at once utterly sensible and miraculously prescient. Once Peter makes it clear that they cannot be frightened into silence by the likes of the Sanhedrin,…
Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24
Comments, Observations, and Questions Call it the little Psalm that could. Call it the Psalm of stealth and surprise. Call it the Psalm that fits the Gospel bill. Why? Because out of all the 150 psalms in the Hebrew Psalter, many people have their favorites but those favorites—most anybody’s “Top 10 Greatest Hits of the…
Luke 4:21-30
I described last week’s ending as a bit of a cliff hanger: Jesus preaches that he has fulfilled the Scriptures of hope and promise, of needs being met, of freedom from oppression and imprisonment. The lectionary helpfully repeats the summary of Jesus’ sermon by opening this week’s selection with the close of last week’s verses….
Luke 4:14-21
Throughout the Gospel of Luke, the Holy Spirit’s presence with Jesus is described in various ways. In verse 14, Jesus has just returned from his post-baptism time of temptation in the desert. Upon his return, Jesus takes up the mantle of teacher, filled with the Spirit for the work of sharing God’s truth in synagogues….
Luke 3:1-6
This week and next we are listening to John the Baptist, who is set up here as a prophet. The signs are obvious (once you know how to see them). First, there’s the clear shift in the text from chapter 2, as Luke provides political context to pinpoint the actual historical moment that John’s message…
Acts 2:1-21
We have come to the conclusion of our fifty day celebration of Easter. It is fascinating to me that our exit from Dr. Luke’s account of the spread of Easter faith is the on ramp to that whole story. With this Pentecost story, we loop back to where it all began. Even as Luke tells…
Acts 16:9-15
This first reading for the Sixth Sunday of Easter continues to trace the progress of the Gospel to the ends of the earth, as it focuses on an abridged section of Paul’s Second Missionary Journey. I say “abridged” because the Lectionary starts our reading in mid-paragraph leaving out some crucial historical and theological details found…
Acts 11:1-18
In this season of Easter, the Lectionary has directed our attention away from the Old Testament readings that are usually the first reading. Instead we have been following the book of Acts, which traces the new thing God did as a result of the Resurrection of Christ. That new thing was the spread of the…
Acts 5:27-32
To my great surprise and delight, the RCL moves to the book of Acts on this Second Sunday of Eastertide and stays there until Pentecost. Clearly the intent is to follow the trajectory of Easter. What happened to the church and the world after Jesus rose from the dead? Did that single historical act have…
Revelation 1:4-8
With this week’s Epistolary lesson the RCL takes another step back into the muddy waters that are the book of Revelation. In fact, on this second Sunday of Easter, the RCL returns us to the Revelation 1:4-8 we just visited on the last Sunday of Year B. On this Sunday, then, we take a kind…
Acts 11:1-18
It’s hard for many of us to imagine Christians getting upset with each other over whom they eat lunch with. So we sometimes assume Peter’s Jewish Christian colleagues were angry with him because he shared the gospel with gentiles. You and I may assume this upset them because they thought of the gospel as belonging…
Exodus 6:1-12
Deep discouragement, even discouragement with God. That is the background to Moses’ grievance against the Almighty. Moses complains bitterly to the Lord that he has mistreated his people. He has sent Moses on a fool’s errand. In sum, Moses charges: “you have done nothing at all to deliver your people” (5:23).Some pious interpreters of previous…
Matthew 13:10-17
Comments, Observations, and Questions to Consider Thus far in the Gospel of Matthew Jesus has been busy. He’s been teaching and preaching, he’s been healing, he’s been explaining, he’s been gathering disciples, and he’s been traveling. And, here in chapter 13 he does something new. He tells his audience a story – a parable –…
Preaching Connection: Gospel