Dear Partner in Preaching, I want to start with a question: how often do you think about your baptism? Perhaps your family reminded you of its importance by celebrating the anniversary of your baptism each year and so baptism has always been important to you. Or maybe you learned to appreciate it later, at confirmation or sometime as an adult. Or maybe your appreciation of baptism was deepened during your study at seminary and now you think of it every time you wash. Or maybe you know the theological significance of baptism but, truth be told, don’t think of it all that often. (Don’t worry, I’m not judging, just asking.) Now I want you...

Dear Partner in Preaching, I have a hunch that paying attention to just a little bit of grammar might help you preach the readings appointed for Reformation Sunday (and, for that matter, Pentecost 20). The point of grammar in question is that we often speak of sin in the plural when we should focus on the singular. A small thing, I know, but before you dismiss this distinction, let me explain first what I mean and then why I think it matters. When we talk about sin, it’s almost always in the plural – sins – as in describing bad things we’ve done. But sin described across Scripture, and particularly in Paul, is not so much a thing as...

What is the difference between love and acceptance? Between disease and personality? Between difference and identity? Andrew Solomon takes up these and other questions in this moving talk on the challenges that face parents of extraordinary children – extraordinarily different, bright, difficult, and more. But as you listen, you’ll realize he is speaking about all parents, all whose destiny is held captive by the fate and fortunes of their children. Based on the research and interviews he conducted for this remarkable book Far From the Tree: Parents, Children and the Search for Identity, Solomon challenges us to reconsider the ideals we...