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Matthew 11:2-11 Sermon Commentary
Advent 3A
Last year it was the cups at Starbucks. But every year somebody finds something by which to allege that a coordinated war is being waged on Christmas. Last year since Starbucks stopped putting Merry Christmas on its red holiday paper coffee cups, some customers did a coy end-run on it all by giving their names…
Luke 1:46b-55 Sermon Commentary
Advent 3A
Our news media are full of stories about invasions: invasive species, invading armies, invasive procedures, and, on the entertainment page, invasions of aliens or zombies. Since it is about real life, the Bible is also full of stories about invasions of one sort or another. More importantly, its central story is about God’s invasion of…
James 5:7-10 Sermon Commentary
Advent 3A
You can parachute right down onto James 5:7 if you want to and pretend nothing else is going on here but . . . good luck. Truth is, starting a reading at verse 7 here is like walking into a room where, unbeknownst to you, a horrible fight had just been taking place between two…
Isaiah 35:1-10 Sermon Commentary
Advent 3A
With the words, “This text shouldn’t be here,” my colleague Barbara Lundblad begins a thoughtful presentation on Isaiah 35. After all, as she points out, it’s not just that this text doesn’t address anyone by name. It’s also that it almost immediately follows a poem that’s full of images of creational disaster: “Edom’s streams will…
Commentary posted on December 5, 2016
Advent 3A Sermon Commentary