Dear Partner in Preaching, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Game of Thrones has nothing on the Bible. I’m in the middle of catching up on season five of Game of Thrones, and it occurred to me that while the political intrigue, devious plotting, and unexpected (and sometimes quite expected) backstabbing and reversal of fortunes are what has made this series such a hit, there is all of that and more in Mark’s rather long (at least for his standards) account of the death of John the Baptist. Close reader’s of Mark’s story have noticed several things about this scene over the years that make it stand out: it’s one of the...

Dear Partner in Preaching, Anyone interested in talking about prejudice and racism this Sunday? What about gay marriage? My guess is that a few – probably a very few – of us can’t wait to talk about just these things because they are passions of ours. My other guess is that most of us would rather not. And that we’ve got lots of very good reasons not to. These issues are too controversial, too painful, too divisive. And, perhaps above and beyond these reasons, we know that people don’t come to church to talk about these things. But here’s the thing: People are talking about them. With friends, with family members, with...