Matthew 4:12-23 Dear Partner in Preaching, This is the third time I am starting this letter to you. The first time I felt like it was going in the wrong direction after just a few paragraphs. The second time, even with more than 900 words, it just didn’t seem like it said much. And so I’m trying again. Some weeks it’s like that – you just have a hard time finding something to say and then another hard time saying it. You’ve been there, I’ve been there. It’s part of the call. And that’s what I want to focus on: the call. Except not just our call, but instead the call, God’s call, God’s call to each and every one of...

John 1:29-42 Dear Partner in Preaching, It all starts with a question and an invitation. Jesus’ ministry and mission in the Gospel of John, that is. And I find that both interesting and instructive. First the question. Jesus’ first words in John’s Gospel are not a sermon or an exorcism or the proclamation of the coming kingdom, as in other accounts, but rather a question. When disciples of John the Baptist come looking for him, he asks them, “What are you looking for?” The richness of this question in the original Greek bears notice, as the question could also have been translated, “What are you seeking?” or “What do you hope...

Matthew 3:13-17 Dear Partner in Preaching, In the summer of 1906, my great-grandfather, a pastor and professor of theology at Wittenberg Seminary, ventured east to look for a summer cottage. The cottage he bought, on Otsego Lake in Cooperstown, New York, has been in our family ever since and has served as a wonderful retreat for several generations of pastors and their families who otherwise would have had a hard time affording a summer getaway. The last name of my great-grandfather, and the majority of my aunts and uncles and cousins descended from him, is Gotwald, and as a kid I would go by that name, rather than my own, while at...