Mark 13:1-8 Dear Partner in Preacher, Most often, when I read Gospel passages that fall in or at least near the apocalyptic genre, I feel a significant burden to explain. To explain a bit about what the apocalyptic genre is like and why authors, including the Evangelists, found it useful. To explain the complex layering of the passages – pointing to both the narrative “face value” story as well as the likely historical context that the author was trying to address. To explain how we can hear passages that described “the end” nearly two thousand years ago when we simultaneously still have preachers proclaiming the end today and yet...

Whether you call it Veterans Day, Remembrance Day, or Armistice Day, November 11th has long been a day on which to remember and give thanks for those who have served their country. This year it falls on a Sunday. I received little training in seminary about how to, even whether to, mark such days in the church; nor, I am afraid, did I offer my students much counsel. (Perhaps that silence was itself counsel.) While I understand some of the typical church/state concerns of highlighting such days in our congregations, it seems to me that on days like this — or, for that matter, on Mother’s Day or Father’s Day or Thanksgiving...

Mark 12:38-34 Dear Partner in Preaching, I do not know what to do with this widow. I am not even sure why Mark shares this story or what Jesus means when he draws the attention of his disciples to her. Most regularly, interpreters over the years offer us two possibilities. She is either an example of incredible stewardship to inspire and motivate us or an example of uncaring exploitation meant to warn and anger us. If the former, then Jesus invites us to imagine that it is not so much the gross amount we give that matters but what that amount means to us. This widow, unlike the scribes, does not give out of a desire to be noticed but rather...

John 11:32-44 Dear Partner in Preaching, Why this story of the raising of Lazarus for All Saints Sunday? While that was my question a week ago when I first looked at this text and began to think about preaching on this day, that question has taken on greater urgency in light of the massacre at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburg over the weekend. And it’s given launch to other questions as well. Why does this passage matter? Does it matter? What does it say not just to this festival but to our life in this chaotic and violent world? Why this quaint festival at all, for that matter? How does what we do speak into, let alone help, in a...

Mark 10: 46-52 John 8: 31-36 Romans 3:19-28 Dear Partner in Preaching, It’s a peculiar pattern in Scripture that those who have every reason to worship and give thanks, too often don’t, while those who seem afflicted and have all kinds of reason to doubt or complain, often surprise you with their profound faith. Or maybe it’s not so much that it’s a peculiar pattern in Scripture, but in life. Blessings for which we were once grateful are all too soon taken for granted. No longer unmerited blessing, they quickly become, at least in our fallen imagination, somehow accomplishments or, worse, entitlements. And then life gets in the way...