Reading for Preaching
For Better, For Worse: Sober Thoughts on Passionate Promises
“Can the Government Prevent Divorce?”
Additional content related to Marriage
Matthew 5:21-37
This is our last week with the Sermon on the Mount, but it is important to remember that context. Jesus started this sermon with blessings for the struggling, encouragement for the blessed, and is describing the high calling of kingdom citizenship. We are still in that spirit. Living the way that Jesus is describing will…
Mark 10:2-16
Comments, Questions and Observations Even with the inclusion of verses 13-16 in this week’s selection, there’s no getting around the topic of divorce that dominates verses 2-12. No matter whether or not divorce is considered a “state of sin” in your church, there will be people listening who have been impacted by divorce—their own, or…
Mark 10:2-16
Digging into the Text: Once again, this text is complex; it deals with two quite different issues. The first pertains to the issue of marriage and divorce, the second on the childlike way in which disciples “receive the kingdom.” At first it may seem that they are connected because marriage and children typically go together,…
Song of Solomon 2:8-13
This is first and only time the Song of Songs appears in the Revised Common Lectionary, and it is an odd time. I mean that the reading clearly refers to the first days of spring, while we are in the last days of summer. What can we do with this oddly timed and controversial reading?…
Isaiah 61:10-62:3
My wife and I have a friendly but persistent discussion about on what date we should begin singing Christmas carols. Were it up to her, our home’s halls would start ringing with carols the day after American Thanksgiving. Were it up to me, we’d begin singing Christmas carols roughly one week before Christmas Day. From…
Luke 20:27-38
“And no one dared to ask him any more questions.” That must have come as a great relief to Jesus in that he had lately been pummeled with one tricky query after the next. Technically that line in verse 40 falls just outside the lection prescribed here, which ends in verse 38 (why it ends…
1 Peter 3:1-12
When we pick up the text at 1 Peter 3:1, it’s pretty clear that Peter is right in the middle of saying something quite long and profound. He is calling the believers in Asia Minor – many of whom were new converts – to good lives – to lives that are so good that they…
Mark 10:2-16
Comments and Observations: “Is it OK to smoke while you are praying?” a man once asked a wise old abbot. “Oh no,” the abbot replied. “Prayer must be the whole focus of one’s mind.” Later another person came up to the abbot and asked “Can a person pray while smoking?” to which the abbot immediately…
Preaching Connection: Marriage